The bodies of 92 migrants have been found after they died of thirst when the trucks they were travelling in broke down in a desolate area on the edge of Sahara desert, officials in Niger say.
The dozens of people were being smuggled last month along a well-established trafficking route used to move contraband, including people, from Niger to neighbouring Algeria, said Col Garba Makido, the governor of the Nigerian province of Agadez, south of where the bodies were found.
Officials were only alerted to the incident when a lone woman managed to stumble out of the desert earlier this month.
She was picked up by a passing car which took her to the city of Arlit, around 30 miles south of where the first of the two trucks broke down.
A total of 21 people survived, most of whom made their way to towns at the Algerian border.
“This is a true tragedy,” said Col Makido.
First word of the incident came on Monday when officials reported that 35 people died of thirst but the death toll rose when more bodies were recovered from the desert.
The tract of land that runs across the continent just south of the vast Sahara desert has, for decades, been the province of smugglers and criminals, including the local chapter of al Qaida.
Tens of thousands of West African immigrants attempting to reach Europe each year have tapped into this perilous route, after authorities cracked down on sea routes via the Atlantic.