Twelve people died on a desert road in southeastern Libya, and all of them were Sudanese. Women and children were among the dead.
Libya’s Ambulance and Emergency Service announced the toll in a statement on Friday. It said a car had hit a large truck on a public road some 90 kilometers to the north of Kufra. Ambulances were sent out after a report of the crash. The service said two other people were hurt, to varying degrees, and that every victim was taken to Attia Al-Kassah Hospital.
LibyaReview named the car as a Toyota Escudo and the other vehicle as a heavy truck. Nobody has said what caused the collision. The review noted that investigations were continuing.
Why this road matters
Here is the practical upshot. Kufra sits on one of the main smuggling routes for migrants from Sudan and elsewhere in Africa heading north through Libya. Think of it like a single narrow bridge over a very large river: everyone heading the same way funnels through the same few points, and one bad day there is felt by a lot of people at once. LibyaReview said the crash underscored ongoing safety concerns on remote desert roads.
News Tunisia drew a grim comparison. Seven days earlier, 11 Sudanese refugees had been found dead of thirst in the Libyan Sahara after their vehicle broke down, the outlet said.
Libya has been in turmoil since the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, and the country has been split for years between rival administrations. Migrants and refugees passing through Libya on the way to Europe face dire conditions.
Sources
- 12 killed in horrific accident north of Kufra (Libya Observer)
- 12 Sudanese Nationals Die in Libyan Desert Accident (LibyaReview)
- 12 Sudanese, including women and children, killed in a road accident in the Libyan desert (News Tunisia)
