Published on
05/06/2026 - 16:05 GMT+2
At least 49 people died of thirst after a truck broke down and they were stranded for days in the Sahara Desert in northern Niger, authorities said on Friday.
The victims, all Nigeriens, were returning home from a religious festival in Mali when the truck stopped running more than 80 kilometres west of Assamaka, near the borders with Mali and Algeria, Niger's Agadez region governorate said in an online post.
Two men survived after trekking more than 50 kilometres to a water source and then continuing to Assamaka, where they alerted authorities, the governorate said.
