Mozambique declares two-day mourning after 28 killed in accident
Wednesday January 26 2022
A road accident. The Mozambican government on January 25, 2022 declares two days of mourning following an accident that killed 28 people on January 22. PHOTO | FILE | NMG
The Mozambican government on Tuesday declared two days of mourning following an accident that killed 28 people Saturday.
A meeting of the Council of Ministers, which focused on the incident and the high number of accidents on the country's roads, agreed that the mourning starts on Wednesday.
On Saturday afternoon, a truck carrying six people and an overloaded minibus carrying 25 people collided in Mirongone village in Zambezia province, 1,600 km north of the capital Maputo.
Eyewitnesses said that the lorry veered off its lane and crashed into the minibus.
24 people who were in the minibus and four in the lorry died.
Police took the wounded to a nearby hospital.
Road accidents are frequent in Mozambique and mainly caused by poor road conditions and lack of electricity.
“A multisectorial team from several ministries is working to reduce this level of accidents,” said Jafar Abdulai, the Minister of Transport and Communications.
He spoke after the conclusion of the meeting, adding that a preliminary report points to overspeeding of the two vehicles as the main cause of the Saturday accident.
In July, at least 32 people were killed and dozens injured in a road accident in Maputo Province.
Figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) indicate that at least 2,504 people died in car accidents in Mozambique last year, while it recorded 2,078 deaths in the previous year.