34 migrants, including 20 children found dead in Niger desert

Niger: In a statement by Niger's Interior Minister, Bazoum Mohammed on Wednesday, he announced that thirty four migrants, including twenty children have been found dead in the country's vast desert of Agadez, after they were abandoned by their smuggler.

The announcement was made on landlocked nation's national television.
Agadez is an arid area in the north of Niger commonly used by migrants attempting to cross the Sahara Desert to reach Libya, as a way station and eventually cross to Europe through the Mediterranean.
Among the adult migrants, nine were women and five were men.
Mohammed said the migrants died between June 6-12, adding that President Mahamadou Issoufou expressed his condolences to their families.
Two of the victims were identified as citizens of neighboring Nigeria, Mohammed said. It was not instantly clear what the nationalities of the other causalities were.
According to the International Organisation for Migration, it estimated that 120,000 people crossed through Agadez last year, recording about 37 death during the period.