African News Agency : Welcome

Niamey, 1 Nov - (ANA) - A minister in Niger says women and children may be banned from travelling north out of the country. "I will be proposing in our next cabinet meeting to ban women and children from travelling to the north from Arlit," Foreign Minister Bazoum Mohammed told the BBC. He was speaking after the bodies of 92 migrants who had died of thirst were found in the Sahara. Niger lies on a major migrant route between sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. But among those who make it across the desert, many end up working in North African countries. "What we hear from our ambassador in Algeria and our consular office in Tamanrasset is that these people come from... districts in Niger and they go to Algeria for begging on the streets," Mr Mohammed said. "Most of these people are being driven by poverty into this difficult situation, but as far as we're concerned this is not a solution," he added. Those found earlier this week are thought to be migrant workers and their families. Most of them were women and children. Mr Mohammed said a ban would "stop this kind of tragedy". But it is not clear how it would be enforced over the country's porous northern borders. The bodies of the migrants were found by rescue workers after the migrants' vehicles broke down as they tried to cross the Sahara. Rescue worker Almoustapha Alhacen told the BBC the corpses were in a severe state of decomposition and had been partly eaten, probably by jackals. (ANA)