Deadly rail crashes in Africa
2010-06-22 14:38
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Congo - A derailed train plunged into a ravine in Congo Republic, killing around 60 passengers, a national rail company source in the oil-producing Central African state said on Tuesday.
Here is a timeline of some major rail crashes in Africa:
September 5/6 1991 - At least 100 passengers are killed near the oil port of Pointe Noire, 400 km west of Brazzaville, Congo, when a freight train collides with a passenger train and two cars fall into a ravine.
March 8 1994 - A commuter train derails near Durban in South Africa, killing 64 people. At least 370 people were injured when the Durban-bound train jumped the tracks on a sharp curve.
September 22 1994 - Up to 300 people are killed when a train derails just outside the southern Angolan city of Lubango.
December 21 1995 - Seventy-five people are killed after a train rams into the back of another in fog south of the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
February 14 1998 - Two petroleum tanker trains explode in the Cameroon capital, Yaounde, killing at least 200. More than 150 people suffer burns, after colossal flames sweep through a crowd scooping up petrol from the tankers hours after they collided.
January 10 2001 - After a technical failure, train carriages tumble into a ravine and catch fire at Mvougounti, on the line from the Congo Republic capital, Brazzaville, to the port city of Pointe-Noire. At least 50 people are killed and 98 injured.
February 20 2002 - At least 361 people are killed after fire sweeps through a crowded passenger train near the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
May 25 2002 - In Mozambique, a mixed freight and passenger train crashes after losing power on a hill. Engineers separate freight wagons from passenger carriages, leaving the passenger cars held in place on the hill by rocks and metal rods. The weight of the coaches makes them break through, crashing into a cargo of mainly cement, and derailing. Cement dust buries dozens of passengers alive. Some 205 people are killed and 400 injured.
June 24 2002 - A passenger train, travelling from Dar es Salaam to the north-western town of Kigoma in Tanzania, rolls backwards and crashes into a cargo train, killing at least 281.
August 21 2006 - A train ploughs into the back of another about 20 km north of Cairo at the Nile Delta town of Qalyoub in Egypt, killing 58 people and injuring 143.
June 21 2010 - A derailed train plunges into a ravine in Congo Republic, killing at least 50 passengers. The train left the coastal town of Pointe-Noire on the Chemin de Fer Congo Ocean (CFCO) line to the capital Brazzaville.
