20 dead in a road accident

Twenty people were killed and eleven others were injured on Thursday when their vehicle overturned near Tamanrasset in the far south of Algeria, Algerian Civil Protection said.

Among the twenty victims were nineteen African nationals and an Algerian, the driver, as well as children.

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The accident occurred at 4:20 p.m. in the town of Ain M’guel, on the road between Ain Salah and Tamanrasset, the same source said on his Facebook page. The passengers were traveling in a Toyota pick-up which was completely destroyed.

Eleven injured taken to hospital

The injured were treated on site and then quickly transported to a hospital in the region, according to rescuers. The Civil Protection services mobilized three ambulances and a tanker to the scene of the accident.

“Civil Protection calls on all drivers to respect the highway code and to be more careful in order to preserve their safety and that of others”, it is written on the Facebook page of the Civil Protection of Tamanrasset, the great metropolis of Sahara nearly 2,000 km from Algiers, not far from Niger and Mali.

Tamanrasset is a transit point for sub-Saharan illegal migrants who want to cross to Europe via Algeria.

Algerian roads are considered to be among the most dangerous in the region. According to road safety figures, traffic accidents caused the death of 3,275 people in 2019 in Algeria.

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