Dozens of Muslim worshippers killed in Nigeria crash

Traffic collisions are common in Nigeria as people sometimes do not take stick to the regulations or rules of the road

Auwal Muhammad Umar People looking at the crashed vehicle — Traffic collisions are common in Nigeria as people sometimes do not take stick to the regulations or rules of the road

Dozens of Muslim worshippers have been killed in a crash in northern Nigeria’s Kaduna state.

The victims were travelling to celebrate Eid-el-Maulud – Prophet Muhammad’s birthday – in the northern town of Saminaka.

Their bus collided with an oncoming truck near the town of Lere, an organiser of the Eid celebration said.

Fatal road collisions are very common in Nigeria. Both drivers and passengers have been known to flout safety measures, which are loosely enforced by the authorities.

An official at the Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency put the death toll at 36 on Monday morning.

However, event organiser Ahmad Dayyabu told the BBC up to 40 people had died and 31 more were being treated in hospital.

“They took off from the town of Kwandare on their way to here, Saminaka. On reaching the town of Lere, their vehicle was run over by a trailer truck,” he said.

“From our investigation, there were 71 people in that ill-fated vehicle.”

The bus is said to have been overloaded.

More than 1,470 people died in road collisions across Nigeria in the first quarter of 2024, official statistics show.

That is around 16 people per day on average.

The government declared Monday a public holiday in order to mark this year’s Eid-el-Maulud.