Algeria: 19 sub-Saharan migrants perish in road accident

Twenty people were killed and eleven others were injured Thursday afternoon when their vehicle overturned in the far south of Algeria, 110 kilometers from Tamanrasset, the great metropolis of the Sahara, and nearly 2,000 km from Algiers.

The accident occurred at 4:20 p.m. in the town of Aïn M'guel, on the road between Ain Salah and Tamanrasset, according to Algerian civil protection.

The passengers were traveling in a Toyota pick-up, which carried mostly nationals from sub-Saharan Africa and which was completely destroyed.

Among the twenty victims are nineteen African nationals and an Algerian, the driver, as well as children.

The injured were treated on site and then quickly transported to a hospital in the region, according to rescuers.

The Civil Protection services mobilized three ambulances and a tanker to the scene of the accident.

A transit region to Europe

"Civil Protection calls on all drivers to respect the highway code and to be more careful in order to preserve their safety and that of others", reacted the organization on its Facebook page.

Bordering Niger and Mali, the Tamanrasset region is a transit point for illegal sub-Saharan migrants who want to cross to Europe via Algeria.

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Since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, human rights organizations have denounced the multiplication of waves of arrests and refoulement of illegal sub-Saharan migrants at the borders of the wilaya (prefecture) of Tamanrasset.

Main speed causes accidents

Algerian roads have long been considered among the most dangerous in the region.

According to the National Road Safety Commission, a government agency, 3,275 people were killed in road accidents and more than 30,000 were injured in 2019 in Algeria, figures down slightly.

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Algeria: 17 dead in a road accident near Mali in 2017

The speed of motorists, including transit drivers, whose accidents kill the most people, is usually the cause of traffic accidents.

In a statement published on the eve of the New Year's Eve, Civil Protection called on "citizens to be more vigilant and cautious, in order to avoid accidents that could occur and which can cause heavy loss of life or death. major material damage ”.