February 7, 2026 l Dalena Reporters
At least 12 people were killed and three others seriously injured on Saturday when a minibus overturned and plunged into a valley in Badakhshan Province, located in northeastern Afghanistan, local officials confirmed in reports issued by international news agencies.
The vehicle was travelling along a rural route toward the provincial capital, Faizabad, when severe road damage caused the driver to lose control, forcing the minibus off the roadway and down a steep embankment into the valley below, provincial police sources said.
Authorities stated that the victims included men, women and children, and that the three survivors were airlifted to nearby medical facilities in critical condition. The police spokesperson emphasised that the deteriorated state of the road surface exacerbated by decades of conflict and lack of infrastructure investment is a major factor behind the region’s recurrent traffic tragedies.
Road accidents involving buses and minibuses are disproportionately common across Afghanistan, where aging transportation networks, insufficient safety regulation, and hazardous driving conditions contribute to frequent, high-casualty collisions. In similar incidents over the past year, multiple passenger vehicles have overturned or collided with other vehicles, resulting in dozens of deaths including a bus crash in Herat Province in 2025 that killed 78 people.
The latest tragedy in Badakhshan underscores the continued dangers facing travellers throughout Afghanistan’s regional roadways, as local administrators and emergency responders reiterated calls for urgent improvements to infrastructure and safety enforcement measures.