A Nigerian migrant simply identified as Kelvin has cried for help after being abandoned in the desert alongside refugees from other sub-Saharan African countries by Tunisian authorities.

According to Infomigrants, an online news agency that covers matters relating to migration and refugee plights, Kelvin and other refugees were driven out of Sfax, a city located in southeast Tunisia, following a spate of attacks targeting migrants from sub-Saharan African countries.

“Someone needs to come now! We are going to die. It is 40 degrees, and we don’t have a drop of water,” said Kelvin in a phone conversation.

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The Nigerian further said he was first detained by Tunisian authorities in Sfax before he was subsequently forced to board a chartered bus that drove and abandoned him in the desert alongside “at least 150 people”.

🚨 « Water, water », « We are dying, aidez-nous ».

Message vidéo d’appel au secours reçu d’un groupe expulsé par les autorités tunisiennes, dont des enfants et femmes enceintes, près de la frontière libyenne. #Tunisie @hrw_fr pic.twitter.com/GRazNjxXls

— Salsabil Chellali (@SaChellali) July 12, 2023

The videos Kelvin sent showed migrants, including women and children, in the middle of the desert and at a point where the heat is intense under a blazing sun.

“There are pregnant women, along with a few children,” said the Nigerian. “We are here, maybe in Libya, I don’t know. Libyan guards came [Tuesday] in the afternoon, they counted us, they gave us a little water and biscuits before leaving.”

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Since then, Kelvin and other stranded migrants have not had anything to drink.

“We are going to die of thirst. It is too hot to stand. Why aren’t the NGOs here?” Kelvin asked.

When the Tunisian Red Cross group was contacted for help, one of its members responded by saying Kelvin’s group was located on the Libyan side of the border, and that the group had not been authorised to get to where they were located.

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When the agency tried reaching Kelvin on Wednesday via a phone call, they were unable to do so. Before then, Kelvin had hinted that his phone battery would soon go flat.

Since Kais Saied, Tunisian president, made a xenophobic speech in February, the expulsion of sub-Saharan African migrants have been on the rise in the north African country.

Tension was further heightened when a Tunisian man lost his life during an altercation between locals and migrants on June 3.