Two bus accidents in Afghanistan leave dozens dead and dozens more injured

A total of 50 people died and 76 were injured in two highway accidents in southeastern Afghanistan, a government spokesman said on Thursday.

One of them was a collision between a bus and an oil tanker on the Kabul-Kandahar highway late Wednesday, said Hafiz Omar, a spokesman for the governor of Ghazni province.

The other, also late Wednesday and in the same province, was in a different area of ​​the same highway that connects the Afghan capital to the south.

Hamidullah Nisar, the provincial head of the Taliban-run Information and Culture Department, told Reuters that the other accident involved a truck, adding that some of those injured in both clashes were in critical condition .

Omar said many of the injured were taken to hospitals in Ghazni and patients in more serious condition were transferred to Kabul. Women and children were also among the victims, he said.

Authorities are in the process of returning the bodies to families, Omar said.

Crash survivor Abdullah Khan, who was being treated at a hospital in Ghazni, said he did not know how many people either died or were injured.

“I got off the bus myself and heard moaning. There was blood everywhere. Some people had head injuries and others had leg injuries.”

Road accidents are common in Afghanistan, mainly due to poor road conditions and driver inattention.