Libya: 20 people died of thirst in the middle of the desert

Twenty people were found dead of thirst in the middle of the Libyan desert, near the border with Chad, after their vehicle broke down in the arid heat, the emergency services said on Wednesday (June 29th).

Read alsoDozens of migrants, including several babies, found dead in the Niger desert

The local branch of the Libyan "

" service in the city of Kufra, in the far south-east of the country, said in a statement that one of its teams had "

.

"

," the statement said.

The rescue service posted a video on its Facebook page showing the remains in a state of decomposition lying on the ocher sand, near their pick-up.

In this arid zone of the Libyan desert with a very low population, temperatures can exceed 40 degrees in summer.

The desert south of Libya, a country plunged into chaos since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011, has become in recent years a hotspot for the smuggling of goods and illegal immigration.

Thousands of migrants cross Libya's porous borders every year from Sudan, Niger and Chad, to come to work in this country or to attempt the crossing of the Mediterranean to Europe.

Cases of migrants missing or found dead in the middle of the desert are frequent.