Nine people have been killed in a collision between a bus and a fuel tanker in southeast Algeria, the civil defence said on Sunday.

The crash, in which six other people were injured, happened Saturday night in Illizi, a statement said, without identifying the cause of the crash.

Speed is the main cause of road accidents in the North African country, according to a government road safety agency.

Algeria recorded more than 3,000 traffic fatalities in 2021.

Other countries in the region also see thousands of road deaths annually.

About 7,000 people lost their lives on the roads of Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, in 2020, according to official figures.

Sudan recorded around 10,000 annual traffic fatalities between 2016 and 2019, according to figures from the World Health Organization and the World Bank.

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