The death toll of migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe in the past five months stood at 1,700. But those from Africa in search of greener pastures are undeterred from taking the risk.
IT was adventure turned awry for some 44 Nigerians and Ghanaians who were travelling by road across the Sahara Desert to Libya en route Europe.
The 44 were among the 92 who died of thirst in Niger after their truck broke down in the desert.
Three children and three babies were among the victims, the Red Cross said yesterday.
The Nigerien authorities have recovered the bodies of the 92 migrants who died of dehydration after the trucks they were travelling in broke down in a desolate ‘no man’s land’ at the feet of the Sahara desert, officials confirmed yesterday. The dozens of migrants were being smuggled last month along a well-established trafficking route to North Africa.
The route is notorious for moving contraband, including people, from Niger to neighbouring Algeria, said Col. Garba Makido, Governor of the Nigerien province of Agadez, south of where the bodies were found.
Officials were only alerted to the incident when a lone woman managed to stumble out of the desert. She was picked up by a passing car that took her to the city of Arlit, about 50 kilometres south of where the first of the two trucks broke down.
The next day, a father, walking with his two young daughters also arrived. But his children perished of thirst just a few kilometres outside of Arlit, said Makido. A total of 21 people survived, most of whom made their way to towns at the Algerian border.
Makido said: “This is a true tragedy. The prosecutor has opened an investigation and we plan to do everything we can to find the truck drivers.”
The tragedy was first reported on Monday when officials alerted that 35 people died of thirst, but the death toll rose when more bodies were recovered from the desert.
But, municipal and Red Cross officials in northern Niger said yeterday only six individuals – five men and a woman – survived the ordeal by managing to walk until they were rescued near the town of Achigour.
The migrants were in two vehicles which broke down, one about 50 miles ( about 80km) from Arlit in northern Niger from where they had set off, the other about 100 miles (160km) from the city.
“The first vehicle broke down. The second returned to Arlit to get a spare part after getting all the migrants it was carrying to alight, but it too broke down”, said a security source.
The source went on: “We think that the migrants were in the desert for seven days and on the fifth day they began to leave the broken down vehicle in search of a well.”
Niger is a major route for West Africans headed for Europe. Last year, about 330,000 transited the land-locked nation bound for Libya’s Mediterranean coastline, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
The tract of land that runs across the continent just south of the vast Sahara Desert has for decades been the province of smugglers and criminals, including the local chapter of al-Qaeda.
Three hundred and sixty-five migrants drowned off Italian island in October last year and tens of thousands of West African immigrants attempting to reach Europe each year have tapped into this perilous route, after authorities cracked down on sea routes via the Atlantic Ocean.
They travel from countries across the region to the Nigerien city of Agadez, where they pay smugglers to ferry them across the ocean of sand in rickety trucks, braving one of the most austere landscapes on Earth for a chance at a better life.
The 750-kilometre (465-mile) trip from Agadez to the Libyan border takes between two and three days with only very short petrol and toilet stops on the way.
In early May, eight migrants from Niger, five of them children, were found dead in the desert while heading to Algeria.
Also in May, soldiers on patrol in northern Niger rescued around 40 migrants from various west African countries who had been abandoned in the Sahara by smugglers they had paid to get to Libya.
The group included people from The Gambia, Nigeria, Guinea, Senegal and Niger, all of them hoping to reach the Libyan coast and from there cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
Many migrants are kidnapped by traffickers or bandits and often subjected to sexual and other abuse.
Hunger, fever, fractured limbs and dehydration are also common problems. Accidents are frequent on the rough tracks used by smugglers who drive for hours without stopping across the desert and the dunes.
The flow of migrants into Europe has gained prominence over the last few months after a number of vessels have sank.
On October 3, 2016, 365 people drowned after their ship capsized near Lampedusa, an Italian island close to North Africa.
Last year, the Danish organisation, 4mi, said it was likely that more migrants perished in the desert than the thousands who drown in the Mediterranean.
The Italian and German governments last month called for the establishment of a European Union (EU) mission along Libya’s border with Niger to reduce migrant inflows.
Following the tragedy, EU officials set up a task force to improve the system of maritime patrols and address the migrant issue.
Leaders failed to agree on more funding for border patrol. They, however, said they would discuss the task force’s findings at a summit scheduled for December.
