Two dead, 20 injured as bus overturns in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province

Kabul: At least two people were killed and 20 others injured after a passenger bus overturned in Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz province, police said on Monday.

The accident occurred late Sunday in Ali Abad district, along the key highway connecting Badakhshan province to Kabul. Preliminary investigations indicate reckless driving as the cause, provincial police spokesperson Jumaddin Khaksar told local media.

Emergency teams rushed to the scene and transported the injured to nearby health facilities, several of whom remain in serious condition.

Sunday’s crash adds to a troubling string of fatal road accidents across Afghanistan in recent weeks, underscoring the country’s persistent challenges with unsafe highways, overloading, poor road conditions, and inadequate traffic regulation.

Earlier this week, four people died, and two were injured when a vehicle plunged into a river in Badakhshan on Wednesday.

On December 4, another deadly collision in Laghman province left one person dead and 12 others injured, including three women. Police attributed the crash to reckless driving. Afghanistan has witnessed multiple fatal crashes through November as well.

On November 23, ten people were killed, and more than ten were injured in a head-on collision along the busy Herat–Kandahar highway, one of the country’s most trafficked routes.

On November 17, a vehicle transporting female clinic staff collided with an oncoming car in Nangarhar, killing a female doctor and a child, and injuring eight others.

Days earlier, on November 14, one person was killed and two were injured in a crash on the Kabul–Kandahar highway in Zabul province, again involving a head-on collision.

Authorities say thousands of Afghans lose their lives annually in road accidents, largely due to speeding, poor infrastructure, and lack of enforcement.