Sudanese media say 57 killed in fiery head-on vehicle crash

A fiery head-on collision in Sudan between a truck carrying passengers and a tractor-trailer killed 57 people and left more than 20 injured on a highway in the country's Darfur region, state-run media reported on Friday.

A police statement said the crash took place late on Thursday in the town of Shangil Tobayi in North Darfur province.

A massive truck crashed into the tractor-trailer transporting a number of smaller cars, causing both vehicles to flip upside down and burn completely, the SUNA news agency reported. It did not provide further details on the cause of the crash. Traffic police laid out the bodies of the victims for a mass funeral in the town.

Some of the injured were in critical condition and taken to a hospital in al-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur, police said.

The truck, which was packed with passengers, was traveling from Shangil Tobayi when it collided with the trailer heading toward the town, located more than 1,100 kilometers (about 620 miles) west of the capital, Khartoum, they added.

Graphic images from the wreck circulated on social media, showing passengers engulfed in flames.

Automobile accidents are common in Sudan, often the result of badly maintained roads and poor enforcement of traffic laws. The World Health Organization has said that road accidents killed more than 10,000 people in Sudan in 2018.

In October, a collision between two buses killed 21 people and injured 29 others in North Kordofan Province.