9 killed, 32 injured in traffic accident in central Sudan

At least nine people were killed and 32 others injured on Thursday in a traffic accident in central Sudan, traffic police official told Xinhua.

The accident took place near al-Hasahaisa town, some 143 km south of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, when two passenger buses collided.

"Nine people were killed, nine others seriously injured and 23 suffered light injuries," Musa Abdul-Ghader, Director of Traffic Police in Sudan's Gezira State, told Xinhua.

"The accident was due to wrong surpassing by one of the two buses," he said.

Deadly traffic accidents in Sudan usually happen during Eid (religious feast) periods due to the intensive trips between the capital Khartoum and the country's other states.

Few days ahead of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the Sudanese traffic police have deployed about 2,230 traffic policemen and over 232 traffic patrols on the national highways.

According to police traffic statistics, 12,648 traffic accidents were registered in 2015, with about 46 percent of them attributed to careless driving and about 41 percent to high speed.

Sudan is among the countries of the high death rates in traffic accidents, mainly due to careless driving, high speed, crumbling roads or invalidity of vehicles used in public transportation. Endit