Africa-Press – Mozambique. The death toll following a road accident on Thursday in Tete province, central Mozambique, has risen from five to six, a source at the local hospital announced on Monday.
“One of the seriously injured patients unfortunately ended up losing his life. He was the driver of the vehicle involved in the accident,” said Henriques Manuel, clinical director of the Ulongue Rural Hospital, quoted today by private television channel STV.
The accident involved a passenger transport van, which overturned after going off the road in Tsangano district, killing five people on the spot, the police spokesman in Tete province, Feliciano da Câmara told Portuguese news agency Lusa on Thursday.
In addition to the deaths, the accident caused nine injuries, five of which in a serious condition, but most have been released, according to the clinical director of Ulongue Rural Hospital.
The road accident in Tete province was the third serious one recorded last week by the Mozambican authorities.
On July 3, a road accident, considered the worst ever by the authorities, killed 32 people and injured 28 others on National Road No. 1 in Maputo.
The collision involved two trucks and a bus belonging to the Nhancale transporter, which tried to overtake, hit one of the trucks and overturned.
On 7 July, another tragedy was recorded when another van crashed after losing a tyre and hitting a truck, killing eight people and injuring 13 others in Sofala province.
The road accident situation in Mozambique is considered by several NGOs as dramatic.
On average, at least 1,000 people die each year in road accidents on Mozambican roads, according to figures provided to Lusa in May by the Mozambican Association for Road Accident Victims.
In 2020, the country recorded the lowest number of fatalities on the roads in the last 10 years (855 deaths), a figure associated with the restrictions imposed by the pandemic.
