A tragic highway accident in eastern Afghanistan has left at least 22 people dead and around 36 injured, most of them women and children, after a truck carrying Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan overturned on Saturday.
Officials said the truck was travelling along the main highway linking Kabul with Nangarhar province when it crashed in Laghman province. According to provincial governor’s spokesperson Abdul Malik Niazai, the victims included 10 children and five women, with the injured rushed to hospitals in Nangarhar for treatment.
Provincial public health director Aminullah Sharif confirmed the death toll and said the truck plunged into a ditch after the driver reportedly fell asleep at the wheel, a common cause of fatal crashes on Afghanistan’s poorly maintained roads.
The passengers were among the thousands of Afghans forced to return from Pakistan following a major crackdown on undocumented migrants in 2023. Iran has also intensified expulsions, pushing millions of Afghans back into a country many of them barely know, having been born and raised abroad.
In a separate incident on Friday night, a car in Nuristan province veered off the road and fell into a river, injuring the driver and leaving four passengers missing. Rescue teams are still searching for them.
Deadly road accidents remain widespread across Afghanistan, where deteriorating infrastructure, overloaded vehicles and lax enforcement of traffic laws continue to claim lives with alarming frequency.
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