(AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)DAKAR More than 80 African migrants have been rescued after being found in a remote stretch of the Sahara Desert where hundreds of others have died along the perilous journey in recent years, the International Organization for Migration said Tuesday.
The 41 females from Nigeria, including twin 4-year-old girls, and 42 males from Nigeria, Togo, Mali and Ghana, were in distress, dehydrated and in need of medical assistance when they were found last week, the U.N. migration agency said.
The migrants rescued last Thursday were found in an isolated place far from any form of life, he said.
Since 2016, more than 1,870 migrants have been rescued through operations in Nigers desert, among them more than 400 this year alone, the U.N. agency said.
It is impossible to know how many migrants have died attempting to cross the Sahara.