(MENAFN- Arab News) JUBA/ KAMPALA: At least 56 people were killed Monday when a bus traveling from South Sudan to Uganda crashed into a truck doctors said.

'The police first brought something like 20 bodies... all in all they brought 56' said Xaviour Okadi a doctor at the main hospital in South Sudan's capital Juba.

The crash is one of the worst recent accidents in South Sudan.

The leader of an association of Ugandans working in South Sudan John Nsubuga said the accident happened at Nisitu some 10 km south of Juba South Sudan's capital as the bus sped to cross a bridge before a truck arrived from the opposite direction.

The bus crashed shortly after dawn on Monday on the main highway south to Uganda.

Police said the bus and truck collided head-on while crossing a bridge.

Many of those killed were Ugandans Okadi said adding that around 15 were South Sudanese.

An AFP reporter witnessed dozens of dead bodies in the hospital's mortuary many with wounds to the head or with broken limbs.

Ugandan traders play a key role in the South Sudan capital many running small businesses or trading stores.

The Ugandan Army is also supporting government troops in South Sudan battling rebel forces in a more than nine-month long civil war.

The highway to Uganda is one of the few tarred roads in South Sudan which is grossly underdeveloped after decades of war.

Fighting broke out again in the oil-rich country also the world's youngest nation in December 2013 following a clash between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar.

The war spread rapidly across the country and has been marked by widespread human rights abuses and atrocities by both sides.

The bus crashed into the truck killing or wounding most of the passengers he said by phone from the Juba Teaching Hospital mortuary where bodies were being identified. He said the bus which was headed to Uganda had at least 60 passengers and most of the victims bled to death.