Twenty-seven churchgoers are killed after their minibus bursts into flames in a head-on crash with a truck in Zimbabwe

A haulage truck that pulled out to overtake another vehicle struck a minibus taxi head-on on the highway near Chivhu, 132 kilometres south of Harare, killing 27 people and leaving at least seven injured. The minibus passengers, identifiable by their white robes, were members of an indigenous African Christian denomination travelling to a conference. Twenty-three died at the scene; the rest succumbed to their injuries in hospital. The minibus was reduced to a burnt-out shell.

Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi confirmed both vehicles were carrying an 'unspecified' number of passengers when they collided on Friday night.

Zimbabwe ranks among the worst countries in the world for road safety, with authorities attributing 94 per cent of accidents to human error.

Road crashes kill around 300,000 people a year across Africa — about one in four of all such deaths worldwide, despite the continent having only 3 per cent of the world's vehicles.