Africa’s longest straight road links two cities over huge 22 miles | World | News

The longest straight road in Africa was built for one very strange reason.

The Chegutu-Kadoma section of the A5 in Zimbabwe is the longest straight road on the continent, extending for 22 miles without a single bend or turn.

But longer is not always for the better, with the size of the stretch of the road contributing towards higher fatality figures following road traffic accidents.

Such is the concern amongst the authorities over the inability to reach those in need of help, a clinic has been built along the route to provide care to those involved in collisions.

Currently, the road holds the unwanted record of being responsible for one fatal road accident every other day.

Chances of death are greatly increased the closer to the centre of this particular section due to the distance from any medical assistance.

Authorities have now turned an obsolete farmhouse into a medical centre to help deal with incidents.

Sister-in-charge Shelter Mberi says that accidents happen almost everyday and believes that the opening of the clinic will allow those in need of help to receive it.

The straightness and length of the road is no coincidence, with authorities deliberately designing it that way to allow it to be used as a runway for military planes if ever needed.

The road in the centre of the country connects the towns of Chegutu and Kadoma and is a section of the A5 motorway which is around 273 miles in length.

Chegutu is a mining district with the route a vital means of transporting gold away from the several mines across the area.

Kadoma, which is twinned with Stevenage, is also predominantly a mining town and is the home of the largest gold mine in the country’s history, with several other mines producing copper and nickel.