The recent disappearance of eight Austrian travelers in the Sahara desert brings to 29 the number of European tourists who have vanished since February between the cities of Ouargla and Tamanrasset and the towns of Illizi and Djanet in the far south of Algeria. None of the disappearances have been solved, but smugglers and drug traffickers are known to operate in the area and officials fear that the tourists may have been kidnapped. The disappearances could be due instead to the harsh environment, the difficulty of staying on a given route and the high likelihood of vehicle breakdown. It is easy to get lost, and hard to be found, in the SaharaÂ’s expanses. But the 29 missing adventurers were traveling in six separate groups, and it is unlikely that so many groups would get lost in the span of about six weeks.
