Niger authorities rescue more than 100 migrants abandoned in Sahara
June 15, 2017
Authorities in Niger said on Wednesday they have rescued over 100 migrants in the past week abandoned by traffickers in the Sahara desert as they tried to cross into neighbouring Libya.
The impoverished West African country is a way station for migrants heading to Europe and some experts believe that more African migrants die in the Sahara than at sea.
Soldiers rescued 25 migrants on Wednesday morning near a well in northern Niger, said the local prefect, Fatoumi Goudou. It was not immediately clear what their nationalities were.
Another 92 migrants, most of them Nigerian, had been rescued on Friday by a team from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and Niger soldiers, said Giuseppe Loprete, head of the IOM mission in Niger.
