At least 49 people have died of thirst in a remote part of the Sahara Desert in Niger after the truck transporting them broke down, authorities have confirmed.
According to Channels Television, the victims were travelling from Mali to attend a Muslim festival when their vehicle became stranded more than 80 kilometres west of Assamaka, a key border crossing near Algeria and close to the Mali frontier.
The Agadez governorate said in a statement posted on Facebook that the passengers became trapped in an isolated desert area after repeated attempts to repair the vehicle failed.
Officials said the group was left without access to water in one of the harshest environments in the region, where extreme temperatures and a lack of supply points make survival difficult.
“Deprived of water and unable to repair the vehicle despite the efforts of the driver, his assistants and the passengers, the travellers found themselves trapped in the heart of a hostile environment,” the governorate stated.
Authorities said the victims were later buried in mass graves.
Two members of the group survived the ordeal. The governorate said they walked more than 50 kilometres to reach a water source before continuing to Assamaka, where they alerted authorities and rescue teams.
The Sahara region around Assamaka is a major transit route for migrants and travellers moving across North and West Africa. Humanitarian organisations have repeatedly warned about the dangers faced by people crossing the desert, where breakdowns, dehydration and starvation frequently prove fatal.
The latest tragedy highlights the continuing risks faced by those travelling through the vast desert corridor linking countries across the region.
