A bus carrying secondary school students plunged into a deep ravine on the island of Fogo, Cape Verde, on Saturday evening, killing at least 25 people — most of them children and teenagers — and seriously injuring at least twelve others. Thirty-two people were on board when the vehicle veered off the road at around 9 p.m. local time, between the localities of Chã das Caldeiras and Campanas de Cima, before falling approximately 30 metres into a rocky, hard-to-reach valley. The driver was among those killed.

The excursion was not organised by any school. According to local authorities, the bus driver had arranged the annual trip to the Pico do Fogo volcanic crater — one of the most distinctive natural landmarks in the archipelago — as a personal gesture for the pupils he transported during the school term, a tradition he had maintained each year at the start of the academic calendar. The students came from secondary schools in the communities of Curral Grande and Ponta Verde, in the northeastern part of Fogo island.

Fogo, part of the Atlantic island nation of Cape Verde off the west coast of Africa, is dominated by an active volcano — Pico do Fogo — and is known for its dramatic and rugged landscape, which complicated rescue efforts significantly. Emergency personnel worked through the night to reach victims trapped in the wreckage, which had come to rest in a stream bed difficult to access. All available staff at Fogo's hospital were called in to respond to the scale of the disaster. Authorities cautioned that the death toll could still rise.

Cape Verde's President José Maria Neves attended the funerals of some of the victims on Sunday, having described the accident on social media as