18 Killed, 29 Injured as Truck Carrying Afghan Families Crashes on Jalalabad-Kabul Road

A devastating road accident in eastern Afghanistan claimed 18 lives on Saturday after a truck transporting Afghan families back from Pakistan lost control and overturned, with 10 of the victims being children, a provincial official confirmed to AFP.

the spokesperson said, adding that rescue and relief efforts were immediately mobilized at the scene.

Fatal road crashes are a persistent and serious problem in Afghanistan, driven by a combination of deteriorating road infrastructure — a legacy of decades of armed conflict — reckless driving practices, and a near-total absence of traffic regulation and enforcement.

The tragedy also reflects a broader humanitarian crisis unfolding along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Pakistani authorities have significantly hardened their position on Afghan migrants and refugees in recent months, pushing large numbers of Afghan families to return home — often travelling in overcrowded trucks loaded with their belongings. According to data from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a total of 447,400 Afghans have crossed back from Pakistan since the beginning of the year.

This is not the first such catastrophe on Afghanistan’s roads this year. Last August, a collision involving a bus carrying Afghan migrants returning from Iran and two other vehicles in western Afghanistan resulted in the deaths of 78 people, among them 19 children — underscoring the deadly risks faced by displaced Afghan families during their journeys home.