The quest for better life keeps luring people from Nigeria and other West African country to embark on a dangerous journey to Europe by road and through sea. This has led to the death of many but the people are undeterred as about 40 including women and children from Nigeria and Ghana were found dead in the Niger’s Sahara Desert after they were abandoned by their smugglers. Six individuals – five men and a woman – survived the ordeal by managing to walk until they were rescued near the town of Achigour.
Rhissa Feltou, the mayor of Agadez, a remote town on the edge of the Sahara, confirmed on Thursday that at least 44 refugees had lost their lives in the desert of northern Niger.
“The number of migrants who died in the desert is 44 for now.” “The sub-Saharan migrants, including babies and women, died of thirst because their vehicle broke down”, the mayor was quoted saying.
The Red Cross has dispatched a team to the site “to gather information” on the circumstances.
In early May, eight Nigerien refugees, five of them children, were found dead in the desert while on their way to Algeria.
Also in May, soldiers on patrol in northern Niger rescued around 40 refugees from various West African countries. The group included citizens of the Gambia, Nigeria, Guinea, Senegal and Niger. The refugees were hoping to reach the Libyan coast so they could cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
The refugees are frequently abandoned in the desert by people-smugglers while travelling to Libya enroute Europe. The crisis in Libya has somewhat aided the business of people trafficking, as people in conflict countries uses the country as a route to Europe. The unprecedented upsurge in the number of illegal migrants and refugees is already causing Europe headache.
