by Rachel Ogbu
More than 90 migrants have been confirmed dead as they tried to cross the Sahara Desert from Niger.
Rescuers recovered the bodies of 52 children, 33 women and seven men who were heading towards the Algerian border.
"It's the first time I've seen anything like it. It is hard to understand what these women and children were doing there," rescue worker Almoustapha Alhacen was quoted by Reuters. Alhacen added that many of the bodies were already decomposed and some had been torn apart by wild animals.
Authorities are suggesting that the victims died of thirst after their vehicles broke down, Nigerian Eye reports.
The death adds to the over 500 people who are believed to have died in two shipwrecks off southern Italy this month.
This year alone, records claim more than 32,000 people have arrived in southern Europe from Africa.
