International
Senegal mourns after 40 people died in two-bus accident─── 16:21 Mon, 09 Jan 2023
Senegal’s President Macky Sall has decreed a three-day national mourning starting on Monday, 9 January 2023, following the deaths of 40 people in a road accident after two buses collided on Sunday.
"As a result of the serious accident in Gniby, which caused 40 deaths, I have decided to decree a three-day national mourning period starting 9 January," the Senegalese leader said on Twitter, according to The North Africa Post.
"An inter-ministerial cabinet meeting will be held on the same date to take firm measures on road safety and public passenger transport," he added.
The tragedy, according to the public prosecutor of the region, Cheikh Dieng, happened when a bus assigned to the public transport of passengers, following the bursting of a tyre, left its trajectory before colliding head-on with another bus coming in the opposite direction".
At least 87 people were injured in the accident in the town of Kaffrine, the capital of the Kaffrine region.
This is one of the country's highest single-incident death tolls in recent years. In October 2020, a bus collided with a refrigerated truck in western Senegal, killing at least 16 people and injuring 15 more.
