Six Rwandese students studying in neighbouring Uganda were killed on Saturday in a road crash which also left five others critically injured.
A traffic police spokesperson confirmed the accident occurred in the central district of Nakasongola.
Xinhua reports the directorate of traffic and road safety spokesperson Charles Ssebambulidde to say that the fatal accident occurred after the driver of the commuter taxi the students were traveling in avoided a head on collision with another commuter taxi coming from the opposite direction, ramming into a broken parked truck at Kakooge along the Gulu-Kampala highway.
He said the commuter taxi was carrying 13 students who belong to the Banyarwanda Students Association at Kampala International University in the capital Kampala.
They were returning from attending a friend’s wedding party in the western town of Masindi.
“Five students died on spot. The sixth student died at hospital. The five critically injured students were evacuated to Nsambya Hospital for emergency treatment and further management,” Xinhua quotes Ssebambulidde.
He said the bodies of the deceased students were taken to Luwero hospital for post-mortem.
Ssebambulidde attributed the cause of the road accident to over speeding, careless and reckless driving.
Uganda registers at least 20,000 accidents with over 2,000 deaths each year, making it one of the countries with the highest road accident fatality rates in the world, according to police figures.
