At least 22 people died and 28 others were injured on Wednesday when a passenger bus overturned on a desert highway in Egypt’s South Sinai governorate. Ten Jordanian nationals were among the dead, according to authorities coordinating response efforts between Cairo and Amman following the disaster.
South Sinai Governorates Desert Highway Crash
A fatal traffic accident on a major desert route connecting the Red Sea resort towns of Dahab and Nuweiba left 22 people dead on Wednesday (Sep 2), the health ministry said. The Egyptian Health Ministry reported that twenty-eight others sustained injuries in the crash, prompting the immediate deployment of 20 ambulances to transport the wounded to nearby medical facilities. The ministry said that all the injured people were being treated in three different hospitals.
Jordanian Embassy in Cairo Repatriation Efforts
The victims include citizens from both Egypt and Jordan, with state-run media in Amman confirming that 10 Jordanian nationals were among the fatalities. Jordan’s official Al-Mamlaka channel reported that the passenger bus was carrying a total of 43 people, including 22 Jordanians, as it traveled on a road bound for Amman from Cairo.
“Ten Jordanians died after a passenger bus overturned on the Dahab-Nuweiba road in Egypt’s South Sinai governorate.”
Jordan’s official Al-Mamlaka channel
Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ambassador Fouad Majali stated that preliminary information received by the Jordanian Embassy in Cairo indicated that an Egyptian passenger bus carrying Jordanian and Egyptian nationals was involved in the accident, which resulted in several deaths and injuries. Majali said initial information confirmed that a number of Jordanians were among the casualties. The ministry’s Operations and Consular Affairs Directorate and the Jordanian Embassy in Cairo are coordinating with Egyptian authorities to follow up on the accident and the condition of the Jordanian nationals involved, he added.
Eastern Sinai Peninsula Highway Emergency Response
Emergency medical teams rushed to the remote stretch of highway in the eastern Sinai Peninsula, where at least twenty ambulances rushed to the scene of the accident between the popular tourist towns of Dahab and Nuweiba on South Sinai’s eastern coast. AFP footage showed the overturned bus and its wreckage scattered along the roadside. The Egyptian health ministry confirmed that all the injured people were being treated in three different hospitals.
Authorities did not immediately disclose what caused the accident, and the cause of the crash remains unknown, though local media reported that the bus overturned after one of its tires blew out. The area is a popular tourist destination, attracting visitors from around the world and known for its beaches, coral reefs, and mountain landscapes that draw visitors from around the world, as well as its marine biodiversity and mountain hiking trails.
Egypt State Statistics Agency Road Accident Fatalities
The tragedy highlights ongoing safety challenges on Egypt’s highway network, where deadly traffic accidents claim thousands of lives every year in Egypt, which has a poor transportation safety record. Egypt’s state statistics agency reported nearly 6,000 fatalities in road accidents across the country. Car crashes are common in Egypt, and often blamed on reckless driving, poor maintenance, uneven law enforcement, speeding, bad roads, and poor enforcement of traffic laws.
Wednesday’s crash follows a series of deadly transit accidents in recent weeks. Last month, at least 18 people, many of them teenagers, were killed in northern Egypt when two pick-up trucks carrying agricultural day-labourers crashed, and another incident occurred where 18 people were killed and 30 injured when two lorries collided in the north-eastern Ismailia governorate. In January, 21 people were killed and 16 injured in a massive multicar pileup on a road near the southern province of Beni Suef.