- Safiu Kehinde
No fewer than 71 people have been confirmed dead in Ethiopia after a truck packed with wedding guests and other passengers plunged into a river on Sunday.
This was disclosed in a statement issued on Monday by the spokesperson for the southern Sidama regional government, Wosenyeleh Simion.
The accident occurred in the Bona district, the regional communication bureau said in a statement issued late on Sunday.
Simion told Reuters on Monday at least 71 people had died, including 68 males and three females.
“Five are in a critical condition and taking treatment at Bona General Hospital,” he said.
He added that the truck had missed a bridge and fell into a river and that the road had many bends.
Some of the passengers were returning from a wedding ceremony and some families had lost multiple members, he said, adding traffic police in the region had reported the truck was overloaded, which likely caused the accident.
According to Reuters, the state-run Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation also reported that the passengers were traveling to a wedding when the accident occurred on Sunday.
Few hours after the incident, the regional communication bureau in a statement late on Sunday, gave the death toll as 60.
Deadly traffic accidents are common in Ethiopia, where driving standards are poor and many vehicles are badly maintained.
Reuters reported that at least 38 people, mostly students, were killed in 2018 when a bus plunged into a ravine in Ethiopia’s mountainous north.