President Macky Sall Calls For Mourning In Senegal

The fatal disaster, one of the worst in recent memory for the West African nation, occurred close to the town of Kaffrine, approximately 220 kilometres (137 miles) southeast of the capital Dakar, on a major east-west highway.

Thirty-eight people died and about 80 were wounded in central Senegal after two buses collided, local officials and President Macky Sall said in statements.

 President Sall declared three days of mourning and posted on Twitter that he was "profoundly saddened" by the event.

According to a statement from the area's local prosecutor, the accident happened when the tyre of one passenger bus broke, sending it into the path of another bus going in the other direction.

Senegal has a high rate of traffic accidents because the country's two-lane highways are frequently overused, resulting in big, often decades-old, overloaded, and listing vehicles and buses.