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Crash kills 41 returning refugees, injures 39

    NAIROBI

    Forty-one Burundian refugees being repatriated by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from Tanzania were killed on Tuesday in a road accident in Rutana Province of southeastern Burundi, UN sources confirmed on Wednesday.

    Eyewitnesses reported that the UN-chartered truck transporting the refugees from a transit camp in Ruyigi suffered a burst tire while going down a slope. The driver was apparently unable to control the vehicle, which overturned down a ravine. The high number of deaths and injuries has been attributed to a cargo trailer attached to the truck that overturned on the victims. The wounded were taken to the nearby Gitega hospital. An investigation of the accident is currently under way.

    A representative from the Burundi Ministry of Reintegration and Resettlement of Displaced People and Repatriates told Radio Bonesha that the deaths were accidental and not the result of a rebel ambush.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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