Twenty students and an adult have been killed and several others injured in an overnight school bus accident in Uganda, police said Friday.
The Ugandan government said it would halt all school trips until further notice in response to the accident.
Parents and other relatives arrived at a primary school compound in Kampala on Friday morning to seek information about their loved ones.
What do we know about the accident?
Uganda Police Force community liaison officer Michael Kananura said in a statement on social media that the accident happened late Thursday night in Chekwatit village in Kapchorwa district in eastern Uganda.
The Suzuki bus from King David Junior School in the capital Kampala was on a tour of the Sipi Falls waterfalls in the area.
Kananura said 20 students and one adult male were confirmed dead following the accident.
“Several survivors, whose identities have not yet been established” were taken to local hospitals for treatment, he said, later adding that three adult males and “several teenagers” were injured in the crash.
“Preliminary investigation indicates that the school bus had taken the students on an educational trip to Sipi Falls in Kapchorwa district,” Kananura said. “While returning from the tour, the driver reportedly lost control of the vehicle, which veered off the road, hit a large stone on the roadside and overturned.”
He said police were still investigating the exact cause of the accident and would provide an update as soon as possible.
How did the government react?
Uganda’s Ministry of Works and Transport said on Friday that Education Minister Chrysotome Muyingo had “stopped all school trips and excursions with immediate effect and until further notice.”
The sparsely populated Kapchorwa district in eastern Uganda, near the border with Kenya, is home to Sipi Falls in Mount Algon National Park.
Road accidents are common in the East African country and are often attributed to poorly maintained vehicles, reckless driving and poor road conditions, which are problems throughout Africa. Infrastructure-related problems are often greater in more isolated areas.
Earlier this month, at least 14 people were killed when a bus and a truck collided in a remote area of northern Uganda. Last October, 46 people were killed in a crash on a major highway between the capital Kampala and the northern city of Gulu.
According to World Health Organization and United Nations data, Africa’s continental road safety record on a per capita basis is the worst in the world, with about 26 deaths per 100,000 people per year, three times lower than in Europe.
Edited by: Rana Taha
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