LIFE IN NIGERIA (OR WEST AFRICA) MAY NOT BE SO GREAT,BUT WHY WASTE SAME LIFE IN THE SAHARA DESERT OR THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA?...

Horrific deaths of 87 migrants - including 48 children - who died of thirst in the Niger desert after their buses broke down on desperate journey to Algeria

• Seven men, 32 women and 48 children found near the Algerian border


• Bodies were badly decomposed and had been eaten, possibly by jackals
  


• Found scattered across a 20km radius in small groups, often under trees
  


• Children and teenagers may have been heading for low-paid jobs in Algeria


• All died in early October after failed bid to escape Nigerien town of Arlit


• Left stranded in Sahara after both vehicles carrying them broke down

The bodies of 87 migrants were found on Wednesday in Niger's desert north after they died of thirst just a few kilometres from the border of Algeria, their planned destination, sources said.

The corpses of the seven men, 32 women and 48 children were in addition to five bodies of women and girls found earlier, a security source said.

All died in early October after a failed attempt to reach Algeria that began in late September, the source added.

Death in the desert: A graphic showing where the bodies of 87 migrants were found in Niger after two vehicles taking them to Algeria broke down before reaching the border.

Almoustapha Alhacen, from local aid organisation Aghir In'man, confirmed the death toll and gave a graphic account of discovering the bodies, some of which he said may have been eaten by jackals.

'The corpses were decomposed. it was horrible,' he said.

'We found them in different locations in a 20km (12-mile) radius and in small groups, often under trees, or under the sun.

'Sometimes a mother and children, but some lone children too.'

The bodies were buried according to Muslim rites, 'as and when they were found,' added Alhacen.

Mr Alhacen said that because so many of the dead were children or teenagers, it was possible they were heading for low paid jobs in Algeria.

Treacherous: The seven men, 32 women and 48 children died of thirst in early October after walking for days in the Sahara desert (above, file picture)

Nigerien officials said on Monday that dozens of migrants, most of them women and children, had died of thirst in the Sahara desert earlier this month.

Two vehicles were carrying the migrants when they broke down, one about 83 kilometres (51 miles) from the city of Arlit, northern Niger where they had set off from, and another at 158 kilometres (98 miles), a security source said.

'The first vehicle broke down. The second returned to Arlit to get a spare part after getting all the migrants it was carrying to alight, but it too broke down,' said the source.

'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,' said the source.

However, 21 people had survived, the source said, including a man who walked to Arlit and a woman who was saved by a driver who came across her in the desert and took her to the same city.

'We found them in different locations in a 20km (12-mile) radius and in small groups, often under trees, or under the sun. Sometimes a mother and children, but some lone children too'

- Aid worker

Nineteen others reached the Algerian city of Tamanrasset, but were sent back to Niger, the source added.

In the lucrative business of transporting Africans fleeing conditions at home for what they hope will be a better life elsewhere, traffickers quite frequently abandon their human cargo in the desert, leaving them to near certain death.

Azaoua Mamane, who works for the non-governmental organisation Synergie in Arlit, said the group left behind consisted of 'entire families, including many children and women, who departed for Algeria, where they hoped to beg for their keep'.

Niger is one of the world's poorest countries and has been hit by successive food crises.

Libya, rather than Algeria, is more frequently the favoured country of transit for west Africans making the journey across the continent, many of whom aim to travel on to Europe.

The UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that at least 30,000 economic migrants passed through Agadez, northern Niger's largest city, between March and August of this year.

These migrants often look to Europe as their final destination, a security source told AFP, and use Libya as a jumping off point amid the relative chaos in the North African country since the fall of Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

Humanitarian agencies say nearly 20,000 migrants have perished while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe over the past 20 years.

The death of more than 300 Africans in a shipwreck off the Italian island of Lampedusa earlier this month has recently pushed the issue to the top of Europe's political agenda.