Jackals feast on dead migrants on smugglers’ route

NIGER

THE bodies of more than 90 people, mostly women and children, who died in the desert as they tried to cross the Sahara in search of a better life, have been found by rescue workers in Niger.

Officials said the bodies were discovered near the Algerian border, strewn along an unmade road which is popular with smugglers who trade refugees, drugs and firearms between West Africa and Europe.

The group had set off from Arlit for the Algerian town of Tamanrasset, about 650 kilometres north. They were travelling in two trucks, but one turned back to get spare parts when the other broke down. After the second truck also failed, most of passengers eventually scattered in a futile search for water.

‘‘We think that the migrants were in the desert for seven days and on the fifth day, they began to leave the broken-down vehicle in search of a well,’’ a security source said.

Colonel Garba Makido, the governor of Niger’s Agadez province, said 92 bodies had been discovered, after a woman managed to raise the alarm. She was one of just 21 passengers known to have survived.

Among the

87 bodies were

48 children, 32 women and seven men, a security official in Niger said. Five bodies were found earlier this week.

Almoustapha Alhacen, from the local aid organisation Aghir In’man, was sent to help because he had a car.

He said they found most of the victims scattered around a 19km radius.

‘‘It was horrible,’’ he said. ‘‘We found them in different locations . . . and in small groups, often under trees, or under the sun. Sometimes a mother and children, but some lone children, too.’’

He said some of the remains had been eaten by ‘‘jackals and wild beasts’’.

They were buried according to Muslim customs, where they were found, Alhacen said.

Military officials said most of the bodies were just 19km from the border. Arlit is more than 210km from the Algerian border, in a region which has recorded some of the world’s highest temperatures. Officials said the convoy left nearly a month ago.

Officials said they believed the victims were migrant workers.

The security source, who asked not to be named, said 19 members of the group managed to press on towards Tamanrasset, but were turned back by Algerian authorities.