At least 49 people have died of thirst in the Sahara desert in northern Niger after a truck conveying them from Mali broke down in an isolated stretch of the desert, authorities in the Agadez region have confirmed.
The victims, said to be returning from a religious festival in Mali, were stranded in one of the most hostile corridors of the Sahara after the vehicle suffered a mechanical failure and could not be repaired, leaving passengers exposed to extreme heat and total lack of water.
In a statement posted on Facebook on Thursday, the Agadez governorate said the tragedy occurred more than 80 kilometres west of Assamaka, a remote desert settlement near the Niger–Algeria border and close to the Mali frontier.
According to the authorities, efforts by the driver, his assistants, and passengers to fix the broken-down truck failed, leaving the group trapped without access to basic survival supplies in scorching temperatures.
“Deprived of water and unable to repair the vehicle, the travellers found themselves trapped in a hostile environment where extreme temperatures and the absence of supply points make survival extremely difficult,” the governorate said.
Officials confirmed that all 49 victims died of thirst and were later buried in mass graves due to the harsh desert conditions and the remoteness of the location.
However, two passengers survived the ordeal after trekking for more than 50 kilometres on foot through the desert in search of water. The survivors eventually reached a water point and later arrived in Assamaka, where they alerted authorities to the mass fatalities.
The Sahara desert corridor has long been a dangerous transit route for migrants and travellers moving across West Africa and North Africa, with repeated reports of deaths caused by thirst, starvation, and exposure during breakdowns or abandonment in remote areas.
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