Forty-nine people have died of thirst after a truck broke down in Niger’s Sahara desert. The Agadez governorate announced this in a Facebook post. The statement said they were returning home after attending a Muslim festival when the truck carrying them broke down, and the water they had with them ran out. Eventually, 49 people died of thirst in a remote area more than 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of Assamaka. Assamaka is a major crossing point between Niger and Algeria and is also near the border with Mali.
The governorate said: “The truck’s driver, his assistant and the passengers tried to repair the vehicle, but could not. The passengers were trapped in a hostile environment, where extreme heat and a lack of water made their survival very difficult.” Two people, however, managed to walk more than 50 kilometres to reach a nearby water source, and from there went to Assamaka to alert the authorities. The authorities said the dead had been buried in a mass grave.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report