It was many years ago, but I still remember vividly all that happened during that untold journey. I was in the company of ten young men and two young women who were trying to travel to another country to work because we felt we were facing too much hardship in our own country. What was wrong with us was the fact that none of us had valid papers to show at the boarders that would allow us to cross. This alone was a risk we were going to take. But we had in mind that we could pay money to the officials as bribe and get our way through with ease.
We were actually going to Libya through Burkina Faso, Mali and cross the desert. We thought we had a lot of money that could take us through the long journey. From Kumasi through Bolgatanga to Burkina Faso was without any problem whatsoever. We spent two days at Burkina Faso waiting for a vehicle that could take us to Mali. This, we had on the second day. The vehicle was not a bus such as the kind we have in Ghana 🇬🇭 but a cargo truck with no roof. We were over fifty packed like sardines in the truck. None of us could speak French or any of the languages most of the passengers were speaking. We kept quiet as much as possible in order not to show that we were from Ghana. It was a whole day's journey and we landed in the capital city of Mali🇲🇱 late in the night. There was no place for us to go since we knew no place and could not even ask where a hotel was since we could not speak the language. We were also afraid that by asking, we could land in the hands of a rough person or a criminal who could take us to a dangerous place.
The decision then was to sleep at the station in the open. We looked at something to eat (tea☕ and bread🍞 to be precise). The night passed very slowly as we could not sleep. By 6:00GMT in the morning, we were trying to find out the next possible route to our destination. Fortunately, about three of the passengers we travelled with from Burkina Faso we're also trying to go to Libya. Fortunately, about three of the passengers we travelled with from Burkina Faso were also trying to go to Libya. So we became friends and used sign language to talk to one another. They could speak French and this was a good advantage. After finding out that, these three gentlemen told us that a vehicle left each night to the desert where another vehicle would pick us to our final destination. We, therefore, had no choice but to wait patiently tipp nightfall🌠🌃. One bitter experience we had at this time was lack of bath😫 (I mean you know how well a good bath helps after a stressful day and a bad indecent meal). For four days, we had not washed our bodies😪. The water we got from time to time could only be used for brushing our teeth and washing our faces.
By 20:00GMT, our journey through the vast desert to Libya had started. One thing that worried me was the number of passengers was not as great as I expected and a lot of them alighted at various destinations. So finally, we were alone in the vehicle to a point we did not know. Another vehicle was supposed to pick us from that point we did not know. An other vehicle was supposed to pick us from that point straight to Libya🇱🇾. By 10:00 in the morning, the fifteen of us including the three gentlemen had reached this place which is supposed to be the next stop to wait for a vehicle to Libya. This place, was where our troubles started. We waited and waited on the desert on the desert from hour to hour⏱️ but there was no sign of a vehicle.
The place was a vast desert with a few buildings scattered here and there. The people we met were very much unfriendly. Then about 18:00GMT, three strong men with bows and arrows came telling us through signs to follow them because no vehicle would come and they would lead us through a short route to a Libyan border town. We followed them in the cold night through the desert. We had hundreds of thoughts running through our minds. After an hour of walking, from nowhere we were surrounded by over ten more strong men who immediately attacked us, robbing us from whatever they could seize from us. Sadly enough, they captured two ladies from amongst us and where they took them, I can not tell even now as I am writing✍️. But I know that they would definitely be raped and murdered later. As for us, we struggled with them and overpowered some of them leaving two of them dead while we ran back in the night until we came to where our sad journey started.
Luckily, the same vehicle that brought us had arrived with some passengers. We had no time to waste but to join it back to Mali🇲🇱. This ended out dreams to Libya🇱🇾.
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