Kampala - At least 20 Ugandan traders have died and many more have been injured after a bus overturned in Southern Sudan, a Ugandan police spokeswoman said Wednesday.

The vehicle was carrying the traders from the Southern Sudanese capital Juba back to Uganda on Tuesday when it overturned about 70 kilometres from the Ugandan border.

"The bus was speeding and the driver lost control," Judith Nabakooba told the German Press Agency dpa. "It rolled over three times times and broke into pieces."

Nabakooba said that dozens were injured in the crash near the village of Kit II and that the death toll could rise.

Uganda's Central Broadcasting Service reported that as many as 45 people may have died.

Buses and other trucks crowd the bad roads - mainly just flattened dirt tracks - of southern Sudan, which is still recovering from a decades-long civil war with the north, carrying traders and their goods to Juba and other towns. (dpa)