The accident happened near Tamanrasset in the Sahara. Bordering Niger and Mali, this region is a transit point for sub-Saharan migrants. The roads there are very deadly.
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 Ain 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 sub-Saharan illegal migrants who want to cross to Europe via Algeria.
