In Zimbabwe, a collision between a minibus taxi carrying church members and a haulage truck killed 27 people, according to a police spokesperson, as reported by infohub.kz.
Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi said that on Friday night, a minibus taxi carrying members of a white-robed indigenous African Christian denomination to a conference collided head-on with a truck on a major highway near Chivhu town, 132 kilometers (82 miles) south of the capital, Harare. The truck was attempting to overtake another vehicle when the crash occurred.
State broadcaster ZBC, citing a provincial government minister, reported that 23 people died at the scene, while others succumbed to their injuries after being admitted to a local hospital. Local media published pictures showing the minibus taxi burst into flames and reduced to a shell.
Nyathi said both vehicles were carrying an unspecified number of passengers. Road accidents involving crowded buses and minibus taxis are common in Zimbabwe and are often blamed on dangerous driving and poor road conditions.
Zimbabwe has one of the worst road safety records, with 94% of accidents attributed to human error, according to authorities. Across Africa, road crashes kill about 300,000 people annually, roughly a quarter of the global toll, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, despite the continent having only about 3% of the world's vehicles.