16 hours ago
Thousands of migrants abandoned in the desert without food, water or shoes
Thousands of migrants including hundreds of unaccompanied children have been kicked out of Algeria and left in the desert without food, water or shoes, aid groups have said.
Over 7,000 people including more than 700 children have been trucked over the border by the Algerian authorities since April in a dramatic escalation of the migrant crisis in the Sahara, according to data from the Agadez governorate in northern Niger.
While Nigerien nationals among them are driven to a transit centre, those from countries across Sub-Saharan Africa are stripped of their belongings, including mobile phones, passports and shoes, and dumped in a remote area of the Niger desert known as Point Zero.
From here, they have to make a 15km journey to the transit centre in Assamaka, a dusty border village, facing 40 degree heat and frequent sandstorms without food or water.
Many migrants abandoned at Point Zero succumb to the extreme conditions before they ever reach help, said Azizou Chéhou, who helps run Alarmephone Sahara (APS), a group which monitors migration across the region.
He said a 'humanitarian emergency' was unfolding along the treacherous migration routes that lead up from sub-Saharan Africa towards the Mediterranean.
Survivors of the arduous desert trek report suffering beatings, dehumanising abuses and rape at the hands of Algerian border guards.
Solène, a woman from Cameroon, told APS that Algerian border guards sexually assaulted her during an aggressive strip search.
'They say: 'You've hidden money up there',' she said. 'We've experienced so much wickedness.'
Norbert, a Cameroonian man, was stopped by the Algerian border guards while trying to cross into Morocco with a group of migrants. He said he witnessed authorities rape dozens of the women, only sparing those who were visibly pregnant.
'The women who were with us were all raped. More than 30 women, all of them were raped. Those who escaped rape were the pregnant ones. [It was done] in front of our eyes,' he told APS.
Fatima, 32, from Cameroon, said the border guards used dogs to taunt the men in her group and filmed it to post on TikTok.
'They were made to stand up, they were stripped naked, the dogs were biting their feet,' she told APS, adding that the guards boasted that it would 'bring them a lot of views'.
Marou, 22, a Nigerien migrant expelled from Algeria, told Doctors of the World: 'I knew repatriation conditions could be tough, but I never imagined such extreme violence.'
Under a 2014 agreement between Algeria and Niger, only Nigerien citizens are meant to be sent back across the border.
Nigeriens rounded up by the Algerian border guards are sent in official 'convoys' to Assamaka, where they are formally handed to Nigerien authorities and transported to a UN-run transit centre in Agadez, northern Niger.
But the testimonies collected by aid groups operating in the area reveal that large numbers of migrants from third countries are being kicked out in unofficial operations.
Those that make it to the transit centre in Assamaka, which is little more than an outpost, receive food, water and basic medical care from the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Marshall Patsanza, an IOM spokesperson, said the lack of provision for primary healthcare makes it particularly difficult to treat patients with chronic illnesses or victims of gender-based violence. This has also led to outbreaks of diseases including measles, which has led to several deaths among young children, according to APS.
After arriving at Assamaka, migrants, including pregnant women and children, are crammed into open cattle trucks and transported to Agadez around 450 kilometres away.
'The conditions are terrible,' said Zalika, a young woman interviewed by Doctors of the World, adding that one man died of dehydration during the journey.
'As soon as we pass through a town, we scream for the driver to stop so we can get water. But he never stops. Some faint, others succumb to their injuries […] it's horrible,' she said.
'The scale of need exceeds our resources'
Doctors of the World said they typically receive 400 people at the Agadez site each month, but this surged by 2,600 in April.
There is now no longer any space in the transfer centre, leaving the migrants stranded in the town.
Unaccompanied children are either taken in by host families or left to fend for themselves on the streets of Agadez, a town rife with people smugglers. Doctors of the world also reported a rise in sexual violence against minors.
Doctors of the World and local medical teams, who provide water points at the site for those turned away by the UN, have warned that many migrants arrive on the brink of death.
'Sometimes they are in a state where they cannot walk,' said Dr Toupou Lancinet, who heads the Niger team of Doctors of the World, adding they recently received around 1,000 migrants in a single weekend.
Yet still the migrants continue to arrive.
'Every day, more children arrive – younger, more vulnerable – and the scale of the needs exceeds our resources,' Djanabou Mahondé, the Unicef representative in Niger, told The Telegraph.
North African countries including Tunisia, Libya and Morocco have for years been aggressively pushing back migrants trying to reach Europe, leading to numerous accusations of human rights abuses.
In 2024, more than 30,000 people were expelled from Algeria – including thousands abandoned at Point Zero.
Dr Lancinet said there had been 'an unprecedented wave' of mass expulsions from Algeria in April and May.
'While these expulsions are frequent, this is the first time that so many migrants have been expelled from Algeria at once,' he told The Telegraph from his base in Agadez.
The surge was reportedly triggered by a diplomatic row that broke out in March when a Malian military drone came down in the border area, which has become a stronghold for Tuareg separatists opposing Mali's ruling junta.
Aid groups are now calling for greater support in tackling the neglected migrant crisis in the Sahara.
'Now is the time to step up,' said Mr Mahondé. 'Every child, whether in transit or in exile, deserves dignity, protection, and a future.'
