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At least 18 people, including 10 children, were killed and 29 others injured after a truck overturned in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday.
The accident occurred on the highway linking Jalalabad and the capital, Kabul, according to Abdul Malik Niazay, spokesperson to the governor of Laghman Province.
Niazay said the victims were members of Afghan families returning from Pakistan, where they had been living.
The death toll included 10 children, five women and three men, while 29 others sustained injuries.
“Eighteen people (have died), including 10 children, five women and three men. In addition, 29 people have been injured,” Niazay said.
Road accidents remain a frequent occurrence in Afghanistan, often attributed to poor road conditions, reckless driving and weak enforcement of traffic regulations following decades of conflict.
The crash comes following a growing influx of Afghans returning from Pakistan after authorities there tightened measures against undocumented migrants and refugees, prompting many families to leave the country, often travelling with their belongings in trucks and other heavy vehicles.
According to figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration, more than 447,000 Afghans have returned from Pakistan since the beginning of the year.
In a similar incident last August, a collision involving a bus carrying Afghan returnees from Iran and two other vehicles in western Afghanistan claimed 78 lives, including 19 children.
