Summary: Only two survived after trekking more than 50km (30 miles) across the desert to alert the authorities.
At least 49 people have died of thirst in a remote part of the Sahara desert in northern Niger after the truck carrying them broke down, the authorities say.
The group were returning from Mali, where they had attended celebrations for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, when they ran out of water, stranded more than 80km (50 miles) west of Assamaka, a major border crossing point between Niger and Algeria.
"The travellers found themselves trapped in the heart of a hostile environment where extreme temperatures and lack of supply points make survival extremely difficult," said the governor of Agadez.
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