18 people died on Saturday in eastern Afghanistan when a truck overturned. Among the dead were 10 children.
Modern.az reports, citing foreign media, that according to local authorities, the vehicle was carrying families who had previously lived in Pakistan and were returning to Afghanistan. Among the dead were 10 children, 5 women, and 3 men. Another 29 people sustained injuries of varying degrees.
The accident occurred on the highway between the city of Jalalabad in the east of the country and the capital Kabul.
Abdul Malik Niazai, a representative of the provincial governor, stated that such road accidents are frequent in Afghanistan. The main reasons for this are the poor condition of roads due to decades of conflict, dangerous driving, and weak state control.
In recent years, Pakistan has tightened its policy regarding Afghan migrants and refugees, which has led to a mass return of people to Afghanistan. Many families are returning, transporting their belongings in trucks.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration, approximately 447,400 Afghans have returned to their homeland from Pakistan since the beginning of the year.
