AL-MUKALLA: At least 11 people were killed and 12 injured on Friday when a pickup truck carrying 25 passengers drove over a cliff in northern Yemen.
Hadi Wardan, from Yemen’s National Commission for Claims of Human Rights Violations, told Arab News on Saturday said that the accident happened when the driver of the Toyota Hilux lost control while navigating a hillside road in the Al-Sharaqi region of Hajjah province.
Local media reports said the passengers were on their way to an engagement ceremony. Video footage shared on social media showed people racing to the scene of the crash to help the victims, ferry people to hospital and recover bodies.
Faris Al-Alyi, a writer from Hajjah, said the route on which the accident happened was known to be perilous, especially on cloudy and wet days.
“On the route to our villages, we often face death during the summer, autumn and winter rains,” he said. “My father passed away on this route when I was a teenager.”
According to authorities in both government- and Houthi-controlled areas of the country, thousands of Yemenis have died in car accidents in the past eight years as a result of their having to negotiate hazardous, unpaved roads. Many of the country’s main roads have been blocked or badly damaged due to the fighting.
Last month, 11 people were killed and 23 injured when the vehicle they were in drove off a mountainous road in Dhamar province, south of the capital Sanaa.
Also on Friday, two Yemeni fishermen were killed when their boat capsized off the country’s Red Sea coast. Their vessel left Khokha on Thursday morning and was reported missing when it did not return the same day. The two victims died from exposure to the icy waters, while a third member of the crew was rescued, a local fisherman told Arab News.
