Dozens killed in bus crash in Tanzania

President Samia Suluhu Hassan has sent condolences to the affected families and urged strict road safety enforcement.

A fiery collision between two passenger buses in Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro region has left at least 38 people dead and 28 injured, the local authorities confirmed on Sunday.

The crash occurred near the town of Same after a front tire on one of the vehicles burst, triggering a collision between the buses and a fire that engulfed both vehicles, Regional Commissioner Nurdin Babu told Xinhua.

Babu added that 22 of the injured had been treated and discharged from hospital, while six remain under medical supervision. The identities and nationalities of the victims have not yet been disclosed.

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan expressed condolences to the bereaved families and Kilimanjaro officials. She urged drivers to strictly follow traffic laws and called on police to “continue enforcing these laws with diligence.” Despite ongoing national road safety campaigns, traffic accidents remain a critical issue in Tanzania.

According to the World Health Organization’s Global Status Report on Road Safety 2023, an estimated 10,052 people were killed in road incidents in 2021 – a figure nearly seven times higher than the government’s official tally of 1,368 fatalities for the same year. The WHO puts Tanzania’s road traffic death rate at 15.8 per 100,000 population, highlighting persistent gaps in enforcement, infrastructure, and data reporting.

This year has already seen multiple deadly bus crashes across Africa. The Tanzanian crash follows another recent tragedy in Nigeria on May 31, when a bus carrying athletes returning from the National Sports Festival plunged off a bridge, killing at least 20 people.

In February 2025, a passenger bus in Zimbabwe collided head-on with a heavy truck near the border town of Beitbridge. The bus, reportedly carrying over 60 people, was attempting to overtake another vehicle when it crashed into an oncoming truck. The collision killed at least 24 people and left around 30 others injured, according to local authorities.