Sudan says provincial governor killed in car crash

A Sudanese provincial governor was killed in a car crash Sunday in the country's southeast that also injured four others, authorities said. Abdel-Rahman Nour-el-Daem al-Tom, governor of Blue Nile province, was heading to the capital on official business when his vehicle overturned close to the city of Wad Madani, around 135 kilometers (85 miles) southeast of Khartoum, according to a statement by the ruling sovereign council.

Police in Wad Madani said the vehicle overturned when the driver attempted to avoid hitting a child crossing road. Four others — the driver, two of the governor's relatives and his bodyguard — were injured in the accident, police said.

The state-run SUNA news agency posted a photo of a crushed Land Cruiser SUV vehicle in which al-Tom had been riding. The vehicle appeared to have tumbled off the road into farmland. Automobile accidents are common in Sudan, often the result of badly maintained roads and poor enforcement of traffic laws. The World Health Organization has said that road accidents killed more than 10,000 people in Sudan in 2018.

In May, a fiery head-on collision between a truck packed with passengers and a tractor-trailer killed 57 people and left more than 20 injured on a highway in the country's Darfur region..

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