Six journalists among 14 dead in Tanzania road crash

Fourteen people including six journalists were killed on Tuesday in a road crash near Lake Victoria in Tanzania, officials said. 

Another nine people lost their lives in an accident in neighbouring Uganda when their overloaded truck rolled over at high speed, police said.

Those who died in northern Tanzania were on a tour with the Mwanza regional commissioner, and included local communications officials and their driver as well as television and newspaper journalists.

"A minibus was trying to overtake another vehicle, then it collided with the vehicle carrying journalists and government officials," said Gabriel Zacharia, district commissioner for Busega, where the accident took place.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan issued a statement on Twitter expressing her condolences to the families of the dead and praying for the quick recovery of the injured.

Last week, the East African country suffered another tragedy after 10 people died when a boat ferrying people to a funeral in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Zanzibar capsized.

Meanwhile, nine traders perished and another 20 were injured when the lorry they were travelling in overturned near the city of Lira in northern Uganda on Monday night.

"The accident has been attributed to high speed, reckless driving and the truck was overloaded with passengers and merchandise," regional police spokesman Jimmy Patrick Okema said.

He said another 20 people were being treated in hospital.

Witnesses quoted by local media said the truck had more than 50 people on board when it crashed, but this was not confirmed by police.

Road accidents are frequent in Uganda and often blamed on reckless driving, high speed, and poor condition of the vehicles and the roads.

Source: AFP