At Least 25 Die as a Bus Leaves the Crater Road on Cabo Verde’s Fogo Island
CABO VERDE · SOCIETY
Key Facts
—At least 25 dead: A passenger bus carrying 32 people left the road on Fogo island on Saturday. Most of those killed were children and teenagers, according to Africanews and the Associated Press.
—The route: The bus was returning to Sao Filipe from Cha das Caldeiras, the village inside the Pico do Fogo crater, when it plunged into a ravine on the Campanas de Cima stretch.
—The driver died too: The driver, who normally drove the pupils to school, was among the dead, the Associated Press reported.
—Two days of mourning: The government decreed two days of national mourning and set up a crisis office on Saturday, Expresso das Ilhas reported.
—Survivors in intensive care: Four patients remained under special care on Sunday, according to Expresso das Ilhas.
—Cause not established: Authorities have not yet determined what caused the bus to leave the road.
—Presidential visit: President Jose Maria Pereira Neves called the accident a great catastrophe and travelled to the island on Sunday, Africanews reported.
The Cabo Verde bus crash on Fogo island killed at least 25 people on Saturday, most of them children and teenagers returning from a school excursion into the Pico do Fogo crater. The government has decreed two days of national mourning and opened a crisis office in the capital.
How the Cabo Verde bus crash unfolded
The bus was carrying 32 passengers back down to Sao Filipe, the main town on Fogo, after a day trip to Cha das Caldeiras. That village sits inside the caldera of Pico do Fogo, the volcano that gives the island its name.
On the Campanas de Cima stretch the vehicle left the road and fell into a deep ravine, according to the Associated Press and Africanews. Rescuers reached a scene that local officials described as one of the worst in the island’s memory.
Seven bodies were buried immediately because of their condition, the Associated Press reported. Several of the survivors were seriously hurt, and four remained under special care on Sunday, according to Expresso das Ilhas.
A driver who made the trip a yearly gift
The man at the wheel was the school driver, and he had organised the excursion every year as a present for the pupils he carried during term time. He was among those killed.
That detail has shaped how the country is talking about the loss. The dead were not strangers passing through, but the children of a small island and the man who drove them to class.
What the government has done so far
The Council of Ministers decreed two days of national mourning and created a crisis office to coordinate the response, Expresso das Ilhas reported on Saturday.
President Jose Maria Pereira Neves described the accident as a great catastrophe and travelled to Fogo on Sunday to attend funerals, according to Africanews.
Portugal, the former colonial power and still Cabo Verde’s closest European partner, issued a formal message of solidarity. The Portuguese-speaking world has responded quickly to an event that touches a very small national community.
Why the crater road is so demanding
Cha das Caldeiras is reached by a single climbing route that switches back through old lava fields to more than 1,700 metres. The descent is long, steep and largely unlit.
The village has been rebuilt more than once, most recently after the 2014 and 2015 eruption buried much of it. Its residents and its visitors depend entirely on that road.
Excursions from Sao Filipe up to the caldera are a fixture of the island calendar, run by local drivers who know every bend. That familiarity is part of what makes Saturday so hard to absorb.
The wider cost for a very small country
Fogo’s economy leans on volcano tourism, coffee and the wine grown in the caldera’s ash soils. The crater road is the artery for all three.
For an archipelago whose population is counted in the hundreds of thousands, the loss of an entire school group is felt nationally rather than locally. Cabo Verde has spent the past two years courting investors on the strength of stability and safety.
None of that is in question after a single accident. But the country now faces a road-safety conversation it has largely been able to avoid.
Cabo Verde’s diaspora is larger than its resident population, and news of this kind travels through Lisbon, Boston and Rotterdam within hours. Remittances and family ties make national grief a transnational event.
What comes next
The cause has not been established, and the authorities have not said when an investigation will report. Weather, brakes and road condition on the descent are the obvious lines of inquiry.
For now the practical work is medical and administrative: treating the injured, identifying the dead and supporting families on an island of fewer than 40,000 people. Everything else waits.
Whether Saturday produces new rules for school transport or mountain routes will depend on what the inquiry finds. Small states rarely have spare capacity for regulatory overhauls, and Fogo’s road is not easily redesigned.
What the government can do quickly is fund counselling, cover funeral costs and keep the medical evacuation route to Praia open. Those are the measures families will judge it on this week.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many people died in the Cabo Verde bus crash?
At least 25 people were killed, most of them children and teenagers, according to Africanews and the Associated Press. Several survivors were seriously injured.
Where did the accident happen?
On the Campanas de Cima stretch of the road on Fogo island, as the bus returned to Sao Filipe from Cha das Caldeiras inside the Pico do Fogo crater.
What was the bus doing there?
It was carrying a school excursion back from the crater village, an outing the driver organised each year for the pupils he drove during term time.
How has the government responded?
The Council of Ministers decreed two days of national mourning and set up a crisis office, and President Jose Maria Pereira Neves travelled to the island on Sunday.
Is the cause known?
No. Authorities have not yet determined why the bus left the road, and no timetable for an investigation has been announced.
Connected Coverage
Fogo’s tragedy lands in a year when Cabo Verde has been working hard on its external position, from the debt swap that turned money owed to Portugal into climate spending to the return of Angolan flights between Luanda and Praia. Ratings agencies have also taken a friendlier view of the islands, as our report on the affirmation of the sovereign rating alongside electricity tariff relief set out.
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