Tuesday, 02 June 2020
Assistance to travelers in distress on the Agadez-Dirkou desert track

Frequent cases of distress in the desert have already killed many people during the last few years. The whistleblowers of  Alarme Phone Sahara, likeLaouel Taher, are doing their best to assist people in distress and help to save their lives.


Alarme Phone Sahara asks for donations to clear up wells along the Sahara traveling routes so that they can be used by travelers to take a rest and provide themselves with necessary water supplies

 

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Here is a report by Dr. Chéhou Azizou, Coordinator of Alarme Phone Sahara in Agadez, Niger: 

 

APS offers assistance when the desert prevents travellers from moving forward.

 

 

 

 

Alarme Phone Sahara (APS) remains faithful to its principles of awareness, documentation and rescue. This becomes a natural gesture among those who work for the transnational APS network. By doing the Dirkou-Agadez section, Laouel Taher did not remain ignorant to the experiences of passengers during their crossing of the desert. Two distress situations to which prompt responses were provided made it possible to secure lives by providing drinking water and sharing of information, as in the desert, water is essential. Therefore, it is carefully managed in case of a breakdown. The precious liquid donated by the whistelblower from the Bilma Valley is the basic humanitarian gesture offered by APS in this vast expanse of sand. Taher Laouel begins his account in the following terms:

 

"I didn't leave Bilma for a specific APS mission. It was a lucky situation that allowed me to bring help to people in need. When we sometimes move around in the desert, we carry a lot of water and also food for our own safety. But if we come across people in distress, we don't hesitate for a moment to help them by offering the means at our disposal".

 

This is how, during its trek on the Dirkou-Agadez axis, the whistleblower Taher Laouel and his travelling companion found 20 passengers who were hoping for assistance in order to continue their journey to Agadez. Their tragedy is explained by the fact that the vehicle carrying them had caught fire and burnt down. Fortunately, there was no loss of life or further material. Having witnessed the fire, the passengers of the vehicle removed everything that was important before witnessing its lamentable burning down. The scene took place on 2nd of June 2020 when the LA arrived at the site near the well known as the "Well of Hope" on 3rd of June 2020. As the moving on was in danger for the 20 passengers, the LA's reaction was to contact the military authorities and APS coordination in order to find an urgent solution. This allowed to find favourable solutions by finding places on board of other vehicles for these victims of the desert obstacles.

 

"Such situations are frequent on the desert roads. Some 90 kilometres before Agadez, not far from the town of Torayatt, we found an overturned truck with more than 50 passengers on its way to Dirkou. We offered water to the passengers in distress. We also took the opportunity to raise awareness among these people with the APS leaflet. As in the first case, we also passed on the information to the authorities. The latest news is that all the passengers are safe and sound thanks to our intervention", concludes Laouel Taher.

 

These regular scenes of distress on the Agadez-Dirkou road call on APS to take a more proactive stance by taking sustainable actions. The water points located on the Agadez-Madama axis need to be dredged to make the precious commodity more available. We call on all people of good will to accompany APS in its solidarity with the migrants crossing the desert.

 

Chéhou Azizou Coordinator APS Niger

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Alarme Phone Sahara asks for donations to clear up wells along the Sahara traveling routes so that they can be used by travelers to take a rest and provide themselves with necessary water supplies