Passenger bus crashes on Nimule–Juba road

December 12, 2013 (JUBA) – Nearly a dozen people are feared to have died after a passenger bus traveling from Kampala to Juba lost control and crashed into a large tree on Wednesday, witnesses and police say.

The bus, belonging to Lol Express, a South Sudanese company, veered off the road about midday south of the South Sudanese capital, Juba.

“The whole vehicle was flattened by the huge tree that fell on it after the bus knocked it,” said witness Anyuat Moses who was traveling from Juba to Nimule on Wednesday.

The road was closed by police for two hour to enable officers to remove the tree from the bus and reach to survivors.

Police sources say eight people died on the spot and more than 30 others were injured. Some of the injured are in a critical conditions.

Witnesses report seeing abandoned passengers’ filed at the road side by police.

“I think nobody in that bus went without an injury,” another witness told Sudan Tribune.

Thousands of South Sudanese, as well as foreign nationals, travel daily between Juba and the Ugandan capital, Kampala. Traffic has significantly increased in recent days as South Sudanese students return home to celebrate Christmas with their families.

Accidents are common on the Nimule-Juba road, which is the only paved 193km highway in South Sudan.

(ST)