Dozens of people died of thirst in the Sahara after the truck they were in broke down. Only two people survived

At least 49 people died of thirst in an isolated area of ​​the Sahara desert, in northern Niger, after the truck transporting them broke down, BBC reports, taken over by News.ro.

The group was returning from Mali, where they had attended a Muslim festival, when they ran out of water, getting stuck more than 80 km west of Assamaka, a major border crossing point between Niger and Algeria.

“The travelers found themselves stranded in the heart of a hostile environment, where extreme temperatures and a lack of supply points make survival extremely difficult,” said a statement from the governor of Agadez.

Only two people survived, crossing the desert to Assamaka, where they alerted the authorities. The truck had departed from the town of Telhandek in Mali, but deviated from its intended route, according to the governor.

For several days, the driver and passengers tried repeatedly to repair the vehicle, but their efforts ultimately proved unsuccessful.

“Deprived of water and unable to repair the vehicle despite the best efforts of the driver, his apprentice and the passengers, the travelers found themselves stranded in the heart of a hostile environment,” the statement said. “Dozens of bodies were found under the immobilized truck and in its surroundings”, he states.

The victims were buried in mass graves by the rescue team sent to the area by the local authorities.

While returning from the crash site, the rescue team said they came across another damaged truck carrying more than 60 people, who had been stranded for three days after a battery failure. The truck had left from the city of Harouba, also in Mali, located more than 300 km from the border with Niger, the governor said in a subsequent statement. The rescue team, which also included Nigerian soldiers, distributed water to the “exhausted and distressed travelers” and helped repair the vehicle, allowing them to safely resume their journey.

The Niger desert remains an important transit corridor for migrants from all over West Africa trying to reach Europe, repeatedly defying the risks associated with this perilous journey.

The governor stated that this tragedy highlighted “the vulnerability of young people involved in migratory and cross-border economic activities, often forced to cross unstable areas to survive or to seek better living conditions”.