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\nCATANIA, Italy \u2013 Lucky Iz had just turned 15 when he and his friend Godfrey set off to cross the Sahara on a hot August afternoon in 2012. Lucky has still not told Godfrey\u2019s family what happened on the journey towards Europe. This is his account.<\/p>\n
The Nigerian boys arrived at the edge of the Sahara with water, biscuits, milk and energy drinks, just as the people-smuggler had instructed them, Lucky recalled. They climbed with 36 others onto the back of a Toyota pickup truck that sped away from Agadez, a city in northern Niger.<\/p>\n
Lucky sat atop a pile of supplies, hanging onto a post with his feet dangling over the side. He knew the driver would not stop if anyone fell off. He was parched and hungry. The sand that sprayed up from under the truck\u2019s tyres stung his eyes. For three days they drove, stopping occasionally to refuel and drink their water.<\/p>\n
On the fourth day, the driver lost his way. His compass had stopped working. Some in the group would never make it out of the desert.<\/p>\n
International groups track numbers of migrants who drown crossing the Mediterranean to Europe. Last year an estimated 3,800 people died that way.<\/p>\n
But no one counts the dead of the Sahara. This makes it easier for politicians to ignore the lives lost there, humanitarian workers say.<\/p>\n
The United Nations refugee agency has no data on how many people die in the desert, according to its North Africa unit. The International Committee of the Red Cross reconnects families, but does not collect information about their dead. A handful of unofficial databases maintained by volunteers, academics and non-governmental organisations have tried to keep count, but they depend largely on media reports, and their funding is sporadic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have any data,\u201d said Julien Brachet, a fellow at Oxford\u2019s International Migration Institute who has been doing field work in the Sahara, including northern Niger, for more than a decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a problem, because there may be as many people dying in the desert as there are in the Mediterranean,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can\u2019t prove it, so we can\u2019t say it, so nobody is going to intervene.\u201d<\/p>\n
LOST<\/p>\n
Agadez has long been a gateway to the desert. \u00a0The International Organization for Migration\u00a0(IOM) estimates that 120,000 migrants passed through the city on their way to North Africa or Europe in 2015, more than twice as many as the previous year. In the past, people would leave the city openly. Weekly military convoys offered some protection.<\/p>\n
But since a tragedy\u00a0in 2013, when 92 desert travellers died of thirst, the government has moved to shut down the routes, and the traffic has become more secretive and hidden.<\/p>\n\n