24 passengers dead as minibus plunges into ravine in Morocco

A minibus carrying market-goers in Morocco plunged into a ravine on Sunday, killing 24 people in one of the North African country's worst-ever road accidents, officials said.

The passengers were travelling a mountainous route to a weekly market in the town of Demnate, in the central province of Azilal, when the minibus overturned on a bend, the local authorities said. Images on public broadcaster 2M showed the vehicle crushed at the bottom of the ravine.

"All the passengers are dead," Youssef Makhloufi, director of the Demnate hospital, told 2M, which reported that at least two women and a child were among the victims. An investigation has been opened to determine the cause of the accident.

Accidents are frequent on the roads of Morocco and other North African countries, which see thousands of road deaths annually.

In March 11 people, mostly agricultural workers, died when their minibus slammed into a tree after the driver lost control in the rural town of Brachoua, local officials said at the time.

Many poorer citizens use coaches and minibuses to travel in rural areas.

In August last year, 23 people were killed and 36 injured when their bus overturned on a bend east of Morocco’s economic capital Casablanca.

In 2015, a collision between a semi-trailer truck and a bus carrying a delegation of young athletes in southern Morocco on Friday killed 33 people.

An average of 3,500 road deaths and 12,000 injuries are recorded annually in Morocco, according to the National Road Safety Agency, with an average of 10 deaths per day. The figure last year was around 3,200.

Authorities have set out to halve the mortality rate by 2026 ever since the worst bus accident in the country’s history left 42 dead in 2012.

Agencies