Forty-four African migrants, including women, children and babies, died of thirst after their truck broke down in the Sahara desert as they journeyed to Libya from Niger, local officials said on Thursday.
The Red Cross, which said "at least 44 migrants have died", has dispatched a team to the site "to gather information" on the circumstances.
Among the dead migrants were 17 women, three children and three babies, according to the Red Cross.
Six survivors walked to a remote village where they said those they were travelling with, mostly from Ghana and Nigeria, died of thirst, according to Lawal Taher, the head of the Red Cross in Niger's Bilma region.
The survivors, five men and one woman, had walked until they were rescued near the town of Achigour, said Taher.
Thousands of migrants each week are crammed into pick-up trucks for the perilous journey from Niger to Libya across the Sahara, which takes several days, often with only enough room for a few litres of water.
In early May, eight migrants from Niger, among them five children, were found dead in the desert while on their way to Algeria.
About 330,000 migrants passed through Niger last year, heading for Europe, according to the International Organization for Migration.
It is virtually impossible to know how many migrants have died in recent years trying to cross the vast and unpoliced Sahara.
Germany and Italy last month called for an European Union mission to be set up on the border between Libya and Niger to reduce the migrant flow.
