Egypt Truck Crash Kills 18, Including Several Child Labourers

At least 18 people, many of them children, have died after a pickup truck carrying agricultural workers crashed in Egypt’s Ismailia Governorate.

The accident occurred on Tuesday on a link road in the Al-Dawawis area, according to Egyptian media reports.

Egypt’s Ministry of Health said 47 people were affected in the incident, including around 30 who sustained injuries. The victims were taken to hospitals in the nearby town of Al-Qassasin for treatment.

A medical source at the hospital told AFP that most of those killed were children aged 13 and 14, while the youngest victim was just 10 years old.

The workers, who were reportedly from two villages in Sharqiya Governorate, had been travelling to a farm in Ismailia where they were employed.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi ordered an investigation into the crash. Egypt’s Ministries of Social Solidarity and Labour also announced plans to provide financial assistance to the families of those killed and to injured workers.

Pickup trucks are commonly used by informal workers in Egypt to travel to their workplaces. Official figures indicate that at least 1.3 million minors are engaged in child labour across the country.

Egypt has also recorded a rise of more than 10 percent in road deaths and injuries, according to the country’s state statistics agency, with children under the age of 15 recording the highest number of casualties.

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