Buses collide in Nigeria

Fifty people, most of them members of a wedding party, have died in a bus crash in northern Nigeria.

AFP news agency reports that a coach and a smaller minibus collided head on in a village called Durbunde, some 90km east of Kano on Monday.

Forty-four people died immediately and a further six died in a nearby hospital, a health worker told AFP.

"It was a scene of real horror.. The wreckage was total," the unnamed worker said.

There were only four survivors from the crash.

Nigeria has earned a grim reputation for its road accidents.

As well as poor roads, bad driving and poor vehicle maintenance are often given as reasons for Nigeria's high rate of traffic accidents.

In South Africa almost 1,000 people died in traffic accidents over the festive season.

Last week, 48 members of a family died when the truck they were travelling in overturned in the eastern South African province of Mpumalanga during a visit to ancestral graves.