50 people were traveling in a truck through the Sahara Desert. The truck broke down, and almost everyone died of thirst
The driver and passengers tried to repair the truck but failed.
At least 49 people died of thirst in the Sahara Desert, in northern Niger. The truck they were traveling in broke down tens of kilometers from the nearest settlement and water source, writes the BBC.
As regional authorities stated the day before, these people were returning from Mali after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha (known in Turkic-speaking countries as Kurban Bayram).
They left the Telhandek parking lot, but, as stated in the announcement by the governor of Niger's Agadez province, they got lost and became stranded 80 km from the Assamakka oasis on the border of Niger and Algeria — in an area where there is no settlement for tens of kilometers around.
The driver and passengers tried to repair the truck but failed.
Local authorities learned about the incident from two survivors who managed to reach Assamakka.
"Left without water and unable to repair the vehicle, most could not survive. Dozens of lifeless bodies were found under and around the truck," the governor's statement read.
Rescuers buried the victims in a mass grave. All victims were citizens of Niger.
Returning from the site where almost 50 people died, rescuers came across another broken-down truck. More than 60 people were traveling in it from Mali, and they had been stranded in the desert for three days already, but were still alive.
As the governor reported in an additional statement, rescuers gave them water and helped repair the truck.
Niger borders Algeria and Libya to the north, and its desert northern part is crossed by major migrant routes from West Africa heading towards the Mediterranean Sea and further into Europe.
The Governor of Agadez emphasized in his statement that this tragedy once again reminds us how dangerous attempts to cross the thousands of kilometers of desert can be without proper organization.
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