Overcrowded Bus Plunges Into Ravine in Northern Ethiopia, Killing at Least 31
The bus left Dessie early Monday and crashed on the Harego road. Dozens more were injured in the 100-metre fall.
Al JazeeraAn overcrowded bus veered off a zigzagging mountainous road known as Harego in northern Ethiopia early Monday and plunged into a ravine about 100 metres deep, killing at least 31 people and injuring dozens more. The bus had departed from the town of Dessie in the Amhara region and was travelling toward Addis Ababa when the crash occurred. Police confirmed the death toll.
Images posted on social media showed the vehicle broken apart and lying against a hillside. Several passengers died because they received medical attention too late, the Associated Press reported. Poor infrastructure and a lack of ambulance services forced injured people to make their own way to treatment centres, allowing their conditions to worsen.
Ethiopia records some of the world’s highest rates of road traffic deaths. Official statistics show road traffic deaths more than doubled between 2007 and 2018. A United Nations report concluded that a lack of traffic signage and road markings poses a significant safety risk.
In December 2024, 71 people died when a truck fell into a river in the southern Sidama region.
