Twenty-four people were killed Sunday in a minibus accident that fell into a ravine on a mountain road in central Morocco, one of the heaviest tolls ever recorded in the country, local authorities said.
The minibus carrying passengers heading to the weekly market in the town of Demnate in Azilal province in the early morning overturned on a bend, authorities said.
“The burial of the victims has begun (…) They are all from Aït Tamlil”, a rural town in the central High Atlas, located about sixty kilometers from Demnate, later told AFP Omar Majjane, a witness on the spot.
After falling into a deep ravine on a dangerous mountain road, the vehicle was literally pulverized by the impact, according to images broadcast by national television 2M.
“All the passengers died, one of them was taken to hospital in serious condition but unfortunately succumbed to his injuries,” said Youssef Makhloufi, director of the Demnate hospital, to the 2M newscast.
Among the 24 dead are two women and a child, the same source said.
Road insecurity
In addition, the damaged minibus was transporting passengers, “without having a license”, lamented Omar Majjane
An investigation has been opened to determine the circumstances of this tragedy, local authorities said.
The roads in Morocco, and more generally in the Maghreb countries, are reputed to be dangerous, and accidents are frequent.
In March, five people were killed and 27 injured, 12 seriously, in a road accident near the capital Rabat.
Another accident last November left 11 dead and 43 injured near the town of Taza in northeastern Morocco.
In August 2022, a bus accident left 23 dead and 36 injured, east of Casablanca.
The coach and minibus are a mode of transport widely used by Moroccans, especially the most modest who cannot afford a car, to travel in the rural and isolated areas of this country of 37 million inhabitants.
In 2022, road accidents killed more than 3,200 people in Morocco, a number down some 7% from the previous year, according to the most recent statistics from the National Road Safety Agency (NARSA). .
Moroccan authorities have implemented a series of measures to try to combat the scourge of road insecurity, and halve the death rate by 2026, following the worst bus accident in history of the country in 2012 (42 dead).
With AFP
