Wreckage of a bus involved in a collision that left several people dead near Kiryandongo on the highway from the Ugandan capital of Kampala tothe city of Gulu in northern Uganda, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. Photo: AP Photo/Hakim Wampamba

Police initially gave the death toll as 63 in a statement sent to reporters, but later revised it to 46, saying in another statement that some people found unconscious at the crash scene were actually still alive. “At the time of the crash, several victims were found unconscious, and some may have been mistakenly included in the initial fatality count,” the statement said.

Several others were injured in the crash that happened after midnight local time on the highway to Gulu, a major city in northern Uganda.

Two bus drivers going in opposite directions attempted to overtake other vehicles and collided near the town of Kiryandongo, according to police.

“In the process, both buses met head-on during the overtaking maneuvers,” the police statement said.

Fatal road crashes are common in Uganda and elsewhere in East Africa, where roads are often narrow. Police usually blame such accidents on speeding drivers. In August, a bus carrying mourners back home from a funeral in southwestern Kenya overturned and plunged into a ditch, killing at least 25 people and injuring several others.

The death toll in the latest crash in Uganda is uncommonly high, said Irene Nakasiita, a Red Cross spokeswoman who described victims left bleeding with broken limbs. She said the images from the scene were too gruesome to share.

“The magnitude of this incident is so big,” Nakasiita said.

While accident victims can expect to get help from onlookers and other first responders who rush to crash sites, “at night even bystanders are not there,” she said.

Most of the injured people are receiving treatment at a government hospital nearby.