According to local authorities, a tragic accident involving two collided passenger buses in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania has resulted in the deaths of at least 38 people and left 28 others injured.
The incident took place near the town of Same when a front tire on one of the buses burst, leading to a collision between the two vehicles and a subsequent fire that consumed both buses, according to Regional Commissioner Nurdin Babu.
According to Babu, 22 of the injured passengers have received treatment and have been discharged from the hospital, while six remain under medical care. The identities and nationalities of those affected have not yet been revealed.
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan conveyed her sympathies to the grieving families and officials in Kilimanjaro. She urged drivers to adhere strictly to traffic regulations and called upon the police to “continue enforcing these laws with diligence.” Despite the ongoing national campaigns for road safety, traffic accidents continue to pose a significant problem in Tanzania.
As reported by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Status Report on Road Safety 2023, approximately 10,052 people lost their lives in road incidents in 2021 – a number that is nearly seven times greater than the government’s official count of 1,368 fatalities for that same year.
The WHO indicates that Tanzania’s road traffic death rate stands at 15.8 per 100,000 population, underscoring ongoing deficiencies in enforcement, infrastructure, and data collection.
There already have been several fatal bus accidents throughout Africa this year. The recent crash in Tanzania comes on the heels of another tragic incident in Nigeria on May 31, where a bus transporting athletes returning from the National Sports Festival fell off a bridge, resulting in the deaths of at least 20 people.
In February 2025, a passenger bus in Zimbabwe was involved in a head-on collision with a large truck near the border town of Beitbridge. The bus, which was reportedly carrying more than 60 passengers, was in the process of overtaking another vehicle when it collided with an oncoming truck. The accident resulted in the deaths of at least 24 people and left approximately 30 others injured, as reported by local authorities.
