A vehicle carrying migrants travels through Agadez, Niger, en route to Libya in June 2015 (AFP Photo/ISSOUF SANOGO)Niamey (AFP) – At least 44 migrants, including women and babies, were found dead after their vehicle broke down in the desert of northern Niger while on the way to Libya, local officials said Thursday. The Red Cross, which said “at least 44 migrants have died”, has dispatched a team to the site “to gather information” on the circumstances. A security source who asked not to be named said “the sub-Saharan migrants, including babies and women, died of thirst because their vehicle broke down”. In early May, eight migrants from Niger, five of them children, were found dead in the desert while on their way to Algeria. By mid-April this year, Italy had registered nearly 42,500 migrants coming by sea, 97 percent of them arriving from Libya.

Source: Egypt Independent June 01, 2017 13:07 UTC