The wreck was found early on a Friday, out in the Libyan desert, 90 kilometers, or about 56 miles, north of the town of Kufra. A vehicle packed with Sudanese migrants had collided with a truck. Eleven of the migrants died, along with their Libyan driver, the town’s Ambulance and Emergency Service said.
Among those killed were three women and two children. A father of 65 and his 10-year-old son came through with injuries, and Ibrahim Abu al-Hassan, who directs the service, said the pair were carried to a hospital nearby for care.
The crash is one more entry in a grim ledger. Earlier in the same month, seven Sudanese were found dead after the vehicle they were travelling in broke down on a trafficker route between Chad and Libya, leaving 34 people stranded in the desert for days.
That coast is the draw. Libya became a main transit point for people escaping war and poverty across Africa and the Middle East after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. More than a decade of instability has handed smugglers a network of porous borders, with routes reaching into Chad, Niger, Sudan, Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia.
Those aboard the crashed vehicle were part of a much larger movement. Since fighting erupted in Sudan in April 2023, thousands of Sudanese have crossed into Libya. The conflict there has killed thousands, displaced more than 14 million, and pushed parts of the country toward famine. For many, the journey across the desert is the price of escaping a war at home, only to meet another kind of danger in the sand.
Sources
- 11 Sudanese Migrants Killed in Car Crash in the Libya Desert, Authorities Say
- Eleven Sudanese migrants die in Libya desert road collision
