June 5 (UPI) — Dozens of people died of thirst in the Sahara Desert in a northern region of Niger after their truck broke down and they were stuck without water for days.

The people on the truck were returning to Niger from celebrating the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha in Mali when the truck broke down roughly 50 miles from Assamaka, a border crossing from Algeria to Niger, The BBC and Euronews reported.

Mali shares a northeastern border with Algeria and a southwestern border with Niger.

Two people survived the 50-mile walk from the broken-down truck to Assamaka on a hunt for water and told authorities in the city.

“Deprived of water and unable to repair the vehicle despite the efforts of the driver, his apprentice and passengers, travelers found themselves trapped in the heart of a hostile environment where extreme temperatures and lack of supply points make survival extremely difficult,” government officials said.

The officials said that the truck veered off its path through the desert and, once their truck could not be repaired, the eventually succumbed to having gone too many days without water.

The 49 people found under the truck were buried in mass graves by a rescue team.

Such trips across the desert carry the risk of death in exactly the way these travelers died, said Chehuo Azizou, who runs a non-governmental agency in Niger.

“This is something we have been working against for years,” he said. “We have been sensitizing drivers, travelers and any person involved [with] immigration activities about the risk of crossing the desert. This recent incident is not unusual.”

On the way back, the same rescue team reported that it encountered another truck with more than 60 people that had broken down three days earlier.

The team gave water to the people on the truck and helped them fix it.