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Fisayo Soyombo’s 47-Day Sahara Journey: Lessons on Migration and Journalism
By Hannatu Bilyaminu & Abubakar Yahaya Ibrahim
Forty-seven days on the road to Libya is an extraordinary amount of time to spend travelling with people who are not simply seeking a better life but struggling to survive a journey that can kill them long before they reach their destination.
Fisayo Soyombo’s investigative series takes viewers deep into that journey—through the Sahara Desert, the breakdowns, the hunger, the thirst, the fear, and the shadowy network of people who control each stage of the route. What makes the series unsettling is not only the danger of the journey itself, but the near-total absence of accountability when things go wrong. A migrant can pay for the next leg of the trip, be abandoned in the desert, robbed, detained, abused or even die—and there is often nobody to answer to.
A Chain of Criminal Transactions
One of the most important revelations in the series is that irregular migration is not a single trip. It is a chain of transactions controlled by “connection men.” These men arrange transportation and hand migrants over from one point to another. Migrants pay them, but once a connection man disappears with their money or leaves them stranded, there is no police, no contract, no legal system to turn to.
Soyombo experienced this firsthand. His connection man, who identifies as Alhaji Buzu, became unreachable and refused to pay for the next stage of his journey, leaving him stuck in a migrant house in Sabha. He also met other Nigerians who showed him chat histories with connection men who stopped responding after collecting their money.
This criminal structure creates a system where people can take money without any obligation to deliver. When the entire transaction exists outside the law, migrants have almost no power when they are cheated.
This is what makes irregular migration particularly dangerous. It is not only the desert that threatens people—it is the complete absence of protection around them.
The Sahara: A Landscape of Death
The series makes it impossible to think of the Sahara as merely a route between two countries. It is an environment where a broken-down vehicle can become a death sentence.
A 17-year-old Nigerian girl reportedly died from dehydration and organ failure after a vehicle broke down between Madama and Libya. Her body was left behind.
Soyombo’s own convoy later broke down. He spent the night in the open desert, and by the next day, there was no water. The group eventually found a well whose water “smelled of death.” They drank it because the alternative was worse. They sheltered under trucks for shade and were chased away by people they encountered.
Women Face Another Layer of Danger
Soyombo’s accounts include testimonies of rape, sexual exploitation, robbery and violence. Women are reportedly separated from men at certain points, and some return with stories of sexual abuse. There are also accounts of soldiers allegedly robbing migrants and later attempting to exploit women sexually.
These are serious claims—and this is where intellectual honesty matters. Testimonies are evidence, but they are not automatically conclusive. The strength of investigative reporting depends on corroboration, documentation and clarity about what the journalist witnessed personally versus what was told to him.
The Limits of Immersive Journalism
Soyombo travelled with migrants and subjected himself to many of the same conditions. This gave him access that a journalist working from a safe office could never have. He observed the journey, spoke to people in real time and experienced some of the physical hardship himself.
But he was still not a migrant in the same sense. He had a way out.
This does not invalidate the investigation. It simply highlights the limits of immersion. A journalist can share someone’s environment without fully sharing their vulnerability. A migrant cannot simply decide to stop the journey, return home, call the authorities or rely on institutional protection when things go wrong.
Ethical Questions About Naming People
Soyombo identifies some of the individuals he encountered, including the connection man he travelled with. When allegations are made against identifiable people, journalists must consider whether the evidence is strong enough to justify naming them—and whether doing so could expose sources or vulnerable migrants to retaliation.
The Bigger Question: Why Do People Still Go?
The central lesson of the series is the warning to “avoid Libya.” But that may be inadequate. Many migrants already know the journey is dangerous. Poverty, unemployment, debt, family pressure and the belief that there are no viable alternatives make a deadly option appear worth taking.
Warnings alone cannot solve this.
People need safer and realistic alternatives:
– credible information
– lawful migration pathways
– employment opportunities
– support for returnees
For migrants, there must be safer choices.
For journalists, there must be rigorous verification and ethical judgment.
For the public, there must be willingness to look beyond the dramatic journey and ask the harder question:
Who built a system in which people are willing to risk dying in the desert because they believe the alternative at home is worse?
That may be the story after the journey.
Hannatu Bilyaminu and Abubakar Yahaya Ibrahim are participants at the PRNigeria Young Communication Fellowship in Kano
