Truckers forced to navigate deadly roads

Truck drivers on Namibia’s transit routes daily risk life and limb – the country ranks 45th in the world for road traffic deaths. Once they cross the border into Zambia, they are on roads which the World Health Organisation ranks as the 24th most dangerous in the world. Across another border into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and they are on the World’s 21st most dangerous roads. This is still safer than Zimbabwe, which has the most dangerous roads in the world, according to World Life Expectancy. Going south is no better – South
Africa is second only to Nigeria in terms of total road deaths in Africa, although it ranks around 68th globally in terms of road deaths as a percentage of population, according to the rankings. Road crashes are one of the leading causes of premature deaths in Namibia, according to the country’s Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) fund. The World Health Organisation estimates that Namibia’s death rate due to road traffic accidents has reached 3.76% of the country’s total deaths, or around 750 deaths a year in a population of 2.5 million.