Egypt crash kills 18, mostly child labourers, in Ismailia governorate

The crash

On Tuesday 11 August 2026, two pick-up trucks carrying agricultural labourers collided on a road in the Al-Dawawis area of Ismailia governorate, approximately 125 kilometres northeast of Cairo. The crash occurred near the Al Shabab power plant. The passengers, mostly from two villages in the Nile Delta, were travelling to work at a farm in Ismailia, according to a security source. A separate security source cited by Al Jazeera said the workers were from Sharqiya governorate. Egypt's Ministry of Health initially reported 47 people involved, including about 30 injured. An early toll given by ministry spokesperson Hosam Abdelghafar, reported by El Mundo at 14:55, put the dead at 15 and the injured at 32, and described the victims as construction workers. Later reporting, citing a medical source at the hospital, raised the death toll to at least 18 and identified the workers as agricultural labourers.

Victims and survivors

A medical source at El-Kassasin hospital told AFP that most of the dead were teenagers aged 13 or 14. The youngest victim was 10 years old, according to local media outlet Al-Masry Al-Youm. The injured were rushed to El-Kassasin Hospital Central for treatment. Among the survivors was 16-year-old Jomana Walid, who had been sleeping from exhaustion after waking at 5 a.m. when the vehicle overturned. She recounted to AFP her sister's last words before dying.

Mama, then she stopped breathing, she was dead.

Her brother Mohamed was hospitalised, according to their grandmother Nour Ahmed Abdulkader. Families gathered outside the hospital in al-Qasasin throughout the day, hoping for news of their relatives.

Government response

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered authorities to investigate the causes of the accident immediately, according to media reports. The Ministry of Social Solidarity and the Ministry of Labour said they would provide financial assistance to the families of those killed and to injured workers. Ministry spokesperson Hosam Abdelghafar said the "level of preparedness of hospitals" had been raised, as reported by the Egyptian news portal Al-Ahram. The ministry's crisis and emergency operations room was closely monitoring the situation.

Child labour and road safety

Pick-up trucks are a common means of transport for millions of informal workers in Egypt, including minors, and are frequently overloaded. Child labour affects at least 1.3 million minors in the country, according to official figures, and children are regularly among the victims of road accidents. The informal economy accounts for 67% of employment in Egypt and nearly all of the agricultural sector, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). The total number of informal workers is estimated at between 8 and 13 million, mostly in agriculture, construction, and industry. Road fatalities in Egypt rose 10.8% in 2025 compared with the previous year, reaching 5,829 deaths and 84,553 injured, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS). Children under 15 recorded the highest toll from such incidents.