Hundreds more migrants found in Sudan desert

Khartoum (AFP) - Sudanese authorities have found 305 more illegal migrants headed to Libya, state-linked media said on Wednesday, about two weeks after at least 10 died and hundreds were rescued.

"They were on their way to Libya in three trucks, "west of the northern Sudanese town of Dongola, reported the Sudanese Media Centre (SMC), which is close to the security apparatus.

The group included 45 Sudanese but SMC did not give the nationality of others.

Sudanese authorities said 10 illegal migrants died in late April when traffickers abandoned their group in the scorching desert on the Sudanese-Libyan border.

Troops from Sudan and Libya rescued about 300 hungry and thirsty survivors, but they later came across even more and transported them to Dongola.

Most of the migrants who reached Dongola appeared to be Ethiopian or Eritrean, but there were some Sudanese as well.

The desert region stretching from eastern Sudan up through Egypt to the Sinai Peninsula is a major route for African migrants seeking a better life.

Thousands of Eritreans, in particular, make the journey each year, many heading for Israel.

But others take the even remoter desert route through western Sudan to neighbouring Libya, in a bid to reach Europe beyond.