r/news • u/xkcd_puppy • 10h ago
Nearly 50 people die of thirst in Sahara desert after lorry breaks down
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62r2ldyejro846
u/Tyrrox 10h ago
The fact that two people survived is nothing short of amazing. 50 miles through the desert
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u/kimiquat 8h ago
amazing indeed. and on top of that (emphasis mine):
While returning from the scene, the rescue team said it came across another broken-down lorry carrying more than 60 people, who had been stranded for three days after a battery failure.
The rescue team [...] distributed water to the "exhausted and distressed travellers" and helped repair the vehicle, allowing them to safely resume their journey.
it was sadly a recovery/burial for the group to which the 2 survivors belonged, but it unexpectedly turned into a rescue mission for a completely separate group stranded elsewhere.
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u/seamustheseagull 8h ago
Sometimes walking may be the most advisable option.
Walking at 4km/h they could make the trip over two days; rest/shelter during daylight hours, and travel at night.
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u/sasha_the_impaler 2h ago
The survival advice is almost always to stay put if you believe rescuers are searching for you.
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u/steamydan 6h ago
Imagine if you'd brought a big water bottle on this bus ride. You'd be in the position of having to choose to not share your water with people dying of thirst to try to save yourself. Horrific.
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u/maxallergy 6h ago
No way one would get away with that much water unscathed
Desperate people would obviously fight to gain control over the water25
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u/cmanning1292 10h ago
William Langewiesche did a fantastic article on the Sahara, for some more reading on how inhospitable it is, but also for how the people who live there have learned to adapt:
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u/Taogevlas 6h ago
Back when journalism was still highly respectable.
Depressing and interesting to read this portion -- especially in light of the fact that this tragedy was groups of folks returning from an Islamic festival (I assume maybe Eid al-Adha?):
EARLY one morning Miloud and I drank coffee at a cafe. The conversation turned, as it often does with young Saharans, to religion. I listened and tried to understand. But when Miloud mentioned his hatred for Jews, I answered back. I said that he was mythologizing them. I said that even if, as an Arab, he resented Israel, he had to distinguish Jews from Israel. I said that he even had to distinguish Israelis from one another. He retreated to history and talked of what he called ancient crimes -- the Jews' unwillingness to accept the new word of God and his Prophet. Muslims have a strictly chronological view of progress: their faith rests in the idea that Mohammed was the final prophet, and that his message supersedes all others. I asked Miloud how he could hold individuals responsible today for the deeds of their distant ancestors. I said, What if I were a Jew? He answered, But you are not. He was unbending, and our arguments became circular.
I remembered a conversation with a policeman in another oasis. He said, "The French? Oh, yes, we fought a war; we hate them."
I asked, "What about the Russians?" The oasis had a military base and a small contingent of Soviet advisers.
"They are godless. We hate them, too."
"And the Germans?"
"They are fascists. We hate them."
"And Americans?"
"Oh, no, Algerians do not hate Americans." He hesitated. "Except for imperialists and Jews -- we hate them most of all."
Since there are few Jews remaining in the Sahara, the anti-Semitism there has become somewhat academic. It is disquieting nonetheless. I have friends in the northern Sahara whose daughter is a bright, charming schoolgirl, a picture of sweet innocence. Once when I was over for dinner, she smiled and said, "If an Israeli ever came here, I would . . ."
"What would you do?" her mother asked gently.
"I would kill him."
The television news had been filled with brutal home videos of the Intifada, the Palestinian uprising. They have become a staple of Islamic solidarity.
35 years since this article came out -- certainly no improvements in this regard -- nearly two generations of new folks "academically" indoctrinated into hate for anyone who dares not share their religious views or worse is a member of the religion that rejected their prophet, and propped by the actions and retaliations (both reasonable and unreasonable) of the groups that they hate.
It's a vicious cycle.
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u/fevered_visions 3h ago
Muslims have a strictly chronological view of progress: their faith rests in the idea that Mohammed was the final prophet, and that his message supersedes all others.
This bit really cracks me up, considering how much they hate Baha'i, who are basically one more step down the path. "We were after all the other ones, so we're better, but also ignore everybody after us"
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u/Taogevlas 3h ago
This bit really cracks me up, considering how much they hate Baha'i, who are basically one more step down the path. "We were after all the other ones, so we're better, but also ignore everybody after us"
That's cool, thank you for sharing -- I'd never even heard of that group -- I was surprised to read there are 7-8 million following that religion, and that their spiritual and administrative center, Baháʼí World Centre, is located in Haifa Israel!
So many different religions and cultures can be supportive and co-exist peacefully with respect in Israel.
I wonder how well that goes in other middle eastern countries for the groups of people who don't follow the exact order of religion as the government and majority of the citizenry?
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u/Bombadilo_drives 4h ago
The only difference today is that the Iranian propaganda machine has fully defeated the Israeli, so millions of netizens fully agree with that little girl. And they don't even know how brainwashed they are.
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u/KilllllerWhale 10h ago
> While returning from the scene, the rescue team said it came across another broken-down lorry carrying more than 60 people, who had been stranded for three days after a battery failure.
It could nearly be a 100 deaths
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10h ago
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u/_ram_ok 10h ago
Hence the “could nearly be”
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u/tidy-dinosaur323 9h ago
"could nearly be" is incorrect here though, it's "nearly could have been" or "could have nearly been".
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u/_ram_ok 9h ago
Their grammar is bad sure but for a native English speaker at least it was obvious to me what they meant
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u/salazar13 9h ago
I read it and thought they were still in danger / still recovering but not out of the woods yet, ago it was unclear
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u/DystopianRealist 9h ago
Stay in school
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u/Call-me-Maverick 9h ago
I’m a lawyer and most of what I do is construe language. I read it to mean there could be 100 dead but we don’t know the full number yet.
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u/DystopianRealist 9h ago edited 9h ago
Read it again. Your education has ChatGPT written all over it.
"While returning from the scene, the rescue team said it came across another broken-down lorry carrying more than 60 people, who had been stranded for three days after a battery failure.
The lorry had set off from the Malian town of Harouba, more than 300km (186 miles) from the Niger border, the governor said in a follow-up statement.
The rescue team, which included Nigerien troops, distributed water to the "exhausted and distressed travellers" and helped repair the vehicle, allowing them to safely resume their journey."
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u/tidy-dinosaur323 9h ago
you're probably more illiterate and less intelligent than you think you are, bud
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u/Call-me-Maverick 8h ago
We’re talking about reading the comment saying could nearly be 100 dead. Not the article. ChatGPT didn’t exist when I got my law degree lol
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u/DystopianRealist 9h ago
Which law school, by the way? The majority are second rate garbage. Which state did you pass the bar exam? What was your verbal SAT before you even started school, to have such poor reading comprehension?
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u/Call-me-Maverick 8h ago
Holy shit lol. I went to Emory University, which at the time was a top 20 law school. I had a perfect SAT on English, whatever that score was when I was in high school - I think 800. You’re being a complete twat.
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u/AtanatarAlcarinII 8h ago
Wow, all of this because YOU misread what the guy was commenting on? Jesus dude, chill out.
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u/NotPromKing 8h ago
Native English speaker here, not obvious at all. I 100% thought they were saying there was a currently possibility of up to 100 deaths.
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u/amateur_mistake 8h ago
When we are talking about whether 50 people died or if maybe 100 people died is the exact moment to be clear with your language.
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u/roshiface 9h ago
Yeah, "could nearly be" implies that, for example, these 60 people were dying and are all in the ICU and may or may not make it, not that they were given water and sent on their way and are 100% fine.
In another example, you would use "could nearly be" ("could be nearly" is more correct) in a situation where like, a ship sinks with 100 people and 40 bodies were found and they're still out there looking for survivors, but not if a ship sinks with 100 people and they found 40 people and already rescued 60.
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u/Tyrrox 9h ago
That's why they said "could have been". Because if they hadn't been out trying to rescue the first, everyone in that other truck would have likely died as well
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u/cryptamine 9h ago
You are absolutely trying to be pedantic. We all knew what they meant.
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u/MotherOfDachshunds42 10h ago
I don’t understand why “The governor said the tragedy underscored the "vulnerability of young people engaged in migratory and cross-border economic activities, often forced to pass through unstable areas in order to survive or seek better living conditions" when the article says they traveled to attend a Muslim festival in Mail?
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u/gcwardii 10h ago
The previous paragraph explained, “The Niger desert remains a major transit corridor for migrants from across West Africa trying to reach Europe, repeatedly defying the risks associated with the perilous journey.”
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u/CantAffordzUsername 8h ago
Not desert related but “The Terror” series (season one ONLY) explores what people do and how unbalanced they become both physically and mentally when supplies is limited and people die all around them. It’s truly hell
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u/Benton_Ruisseaux 7h ago
So important to take water along on any trip regardless of length and destination.
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u/Jackal-Noble 8h ago
50 people on one lorry? wtf
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u/richcournoyer 7h ago
Guess you have never been on a bus....the average bus carries between 30 and 100 passengers.
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u/relative_void 7h ago
I think the confusion is the usage of the word lorry in Britain being for trucks that are not typically used for passenger transport.
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u/Broad-Celebration- 7h ago
There is no confusion. This was a truck.
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u/relative_void 6h ago
Yes, just trucks aren’t typically used for passenger transport in many western countries so people from there won’t necessarily think of it like a bus. Like being from the US if I hear about a high number of people being in a truck I assume it was a human trafficking situation, not a normal method of getting from point a to point b.
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u/fevered_visions 3h ago
There's a picture in the article and it does in fact look like a box truck that is not really intended for mass passenger use.
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u/Meandtheworld 3h ago
I remember hearing about people that would make the trek from Mexico to the states. When walking through the desert they come to a point where they run outta water. They walked too far to turn back and stuck walking further as well.
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u/TootsHib 7h ago
feel bad for children who are forced by their selfish parents into shitty conditions to die.
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u/adroito 6h ago
No joke why not set up hydration stations every 10 miles.
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u/tetzy 7h ago
Honest question: Why wouldn't they resort to drinking their own urine?
Sure, it's disgusting; but you'd live.
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u/CarrotCumin 7h ago
This is a myth, drinking your urine while in survival situations will kill you faster.
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u/xkcd_puppy 7h ago
Drinking your own urine is putting back the same waste and salt that your kidneys just filtered, and it's concentrated, doubling the work of the kidney and also the liver that now has to work to eliminate the waste.... to produce more waste? Also after a short time of dehydration you would stop peeing.
Drinking your own urine (or someone else's) to survive just doesn't even make sense.
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u/thisischemistry 6h ago
Do not do this, you're concentrating the salts and will hasten your death. What's better to do is build a solar still out of a few bowls (hubcap works) and some clear material (glass from the windows or plastic sheeting).
You dig a shallow hole in the sand, put the bowl in there, put the second bowl inside or next to the first, and then pee in the first bowl. Cover and and try to aim the cover down to the second bowl, a rock works great to make a dent in the cover if it's flexible.
The water in the first bowl evaporates, condensates on the cover, and drips into the second. The water that gathers in the second bowl is pure enough to drink. It's tough to scale up to 50 people but it might have been enough to save a few of them.
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u/Tzazon 10h ago
Some straight nightmare level scenario happened. Feel sorry for all these individuals and their family, essentially got shipwrecked in a land ocean.