We drink our urine, say Nigerians travelling across Sahara Desert

By Odunewu Segun

In hundreds they died of hydration, hopelessness across the Sahara Desert, hoping to migrate to Europe when their abundantly blessed country, Nigeria, is being bleed to death by visionless leaders.

At the mercy of the mighty Sahara Desert, they resulted to the drinking of their pee to survive.

According to National Daily findings, during this journey on foot, many give up the ghost when they get tired, or fall sick. They are left behind as the group must move on.

In some cases, the guide loses his bearings so they all wonder in the desert till death parts them all. There are horrific stories of strange beasts and animals attacking them.

The sad story of 22-year Adoara is just one out of several thousands of Nigerians who have died trying to cross this mighty natural barrier.

According to the International Organisation for Migration who rescued her after ten days of aimless wandering in the mighty Sahara desert after being abandoned by traffickers left Nigeria in April and was rescued in May 28.

“There were 50 migrants on the pick-up truck when it left Agadez for Libya, but only six are still alive today,” Giuseppe Loprete, Niger Chief of Mission for IOM, said.

Recounting her ordeal, Adoara said: “We were in the desert for 10 days. After five days, the driver abandoned us. He left with all of our belongings, saying he was going to pick us up in a couple of hours, but he never did,” she recalled.

During the next two days, 44 of the migrants died which persuaded the six left to start walking to look for help.

“We had to drink our own pee to survive,” said Adoara now in an IOM camp in Niamey, Niger.

She had left Nigeria with two close female friends, who both died in the desert.

“They were too weak to keep going,” she sadly remembers. “We buried a few, but there were just too many to bury and we didn’t have the strength to do it,” Adaora adds.

“I couldn’t walk anymore. I wanted to give up,” she recalls.

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Two other migrants carried her until a truck driver picked them up and took them to local authorities who then alerted IOM staff in Dirkou in the Agadez Region of north-eastern Niger.

By the time the six survivors reached IOM’s transit centre in Dirkou, Adaora was unconscious.

After having received medical assistance at IOM’s transit centres in both Dirkou and Agadez, Adaora is currently recovering at IOM’s transit centre for migrants in Niamey, awaiting her imminent voluntary return to Nigeria.

Adaora says she had no idea what the route was going to be like, otherwise she would have never left Nigeria. Going back, she wants to continue her work as a nurse. “I think it’s important we all assist each other when we are in need,” she says.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it rescued no fewer than 600 people since April 2017 through a new search and rescue operation that targeted migrants stranded in Sahara Desert.

The UN migration agency, however, regretted 52 migrants, mostly from The Gambia, Nigeria, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire, died over the period, according to its statement on Tuesday.

According to IOM, just recently, 24 migrants were taken to Seguedine, where one died on arrival. “Among the 23 survivors are migrants from Gambia, Nigeria, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire. It was not clear for how long they had been walking in the deserts of central Niger.”

Recall that National Daily had earlier reported the death of at least 44 people, including Nigerians, due to thirst after their truck broke down in the Sahara Desert in northern Niger as they attempted to reach Europe.

There are so many dead bodies of Africans with their passports on their chests. Their relatives neither know where they are nor do they have a clue that they are dead.