FILE: Scene of an accident

Nearly 40 people were killed while 18 others injured in an accident involving a truck and two buses in Cameroon on Sunday.

The local police chief Poly Ebou said the truck tried to overtake a passenger bus but collided with it instead, sending the bus careening into a river below.

A few minutes later, another bus – which was trying to avoid the crowd that had formed around the accident – also slid into the river.

The injured were being taken to the capital Yaounde for treatment, the police chief said.

The crash occurred on the Yaounde-Foumban highway near Ndiki, in western Cameroon.

Fatal road accidents occur frequently in Cameroon and elsewhere in Africa, often because the roads and vehicles are poorly maintained.