A bus accident in Aswan leaves ten dead, including four French and a Belgian

A bus accident caused the death of four French people, a Belgian and five Egyptians in Aswan, a very touristic city in southern Egypt. In addition, 14 other people were injured (eight French and six Belgians) and are in “stable condition” after being hospitalized for “fractures, bruises and superficial injuries”, specifies a press release issued by the governorate.

The accident took place early in the morning when the bus carrying the tourists collided with a car on the almost 300 km long desert road leading to the temples of Abu Simbel. Traffic accidents are common in Egypt where the roads are often poorly maintained and the rules of the road not respected. Officially, 7,000 people were killed in traffic accidents in 2020 in the most populous country in the Arab world, which has 103 million inhabitants.

Egyptian tourism at its worst

After years of political instability linked to the popular revolt of 2011, which dealt a severe blow to the key sector of tourism, Egypt had just managed to bring visitors back in 2019, in particular by promoting its ancient heritage. But in 2020, with the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, revenue from tourism, which employs two million Egyptians and generates more than 10% of GDP, plunged from thirteen billion to four billion dollars.

In August 2021, Russia resumed flights interrupted for six years after a deadly crash, reinvigorating the sector at half mast. But the invasion of Ukraine by Moscow put a brutal halt to the revival while its two countries represented until the war 40% of tourist arrivals in Egypt, mainly on the Red Sea. The French and the Belgians, on the other hand, are the first contingents of visitors to the pharaonic sites of Luxor and Aswan.