A race for survival across Niger’s burning desert
The following account is by Ahmed (not his real name), one of the thousands of migrants who travel through the Sahara including through Niger each year, where the blazing heat and dust challenges their very survival. They may find themselves trapped in the desert, destitute and unable to contact their families. Many lose their lives on the journey.
There were several dozen people and we were on two trucks, going towards the Algerian border.
I don’t remember exactly what date we set off on. Most of the people were women with their children. They had to pay more than if it had just been them by themselves.
We thought we could make it in a day. But the trucks were in really bad condition, so we were travelling for a week, while the drivers had to keep on repairing flat tyres.
Our food and water ran out after three days. So we decided to turn back and try and find the nearest water points.
Seven people already died before we got to the first small well and there wasn’t enough for us all to drink. So a group of us men decided to leave the women and children there and head to the next well to try and get more water.
We got back with some more by about 9 the next morning.
But the truck drivers apparently just abandoned the women and kids at the first small well so they decided to set off for the next one, carrying as much water as they could.
The women and children were so weak from being in the desert for all those days that they couldn’t make it.
“I couldn’t do anything. I just saw the women and children dying all along the road to the well.”
Only about 10 men made it there and they stayed for about four days before a passing truck picked them up and gave them a lift to the Algerian border, where they got some help from the government.
The Red Cross Society of Niger, supported by the ICRC, has been helping thousands of migrants over the years at a shelter in Agadez to reach out to their loved ones anxious for news of their fate.
