[LINK] On the worsening troubles of black Africans in Libya

[rfmcdonald]

One thing I've mentioned at Demography Matters is that Libya has become a country of mass immigration thanks to its oil wealth, attracting well over a million immigrants, mostly (but not entirely) from Egypt and from sub-Saharan Africa. The migrants from Egypt don't seem to be subjects of particular suspicion or dislike; the migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, both.

Gadaffi's recruitment of mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa--covered in Serge Daniel's AFP article Kadhafi recruiting hundreds of Tuareg fighters"--is doing nothing good for regional stability or for the fate of Africans living in Libya.

Hundreds of young Tuareg from Mali and Niger, including former rebels, are being recruited by embattled Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi to fight off a popular uprising, officials in northern Mali said.

"We are worried in many respects," said Abdou Salam Ag Assalat, president of the Regional Assembly of Kidal.

These young people "are going in masses (to Libya). It's very dangerous for us because whether Kadhafi resists or he falls, there will be an impact for our region."

He said regional authorities "are trying to dissuade them" from leaving, particularly ex-rebels, but that it was not easy as there were "dollars and weapons" waiting for them.

Assalat said an entire network was in place to organise the trip to Libya.

"Kadhafi's reach stretches to us. He knows who to call, they make group trips. There seems to be an air link from Chad. Others go by road to southern Libya."

"All of that scares me, really, because one day they will come back with the same arms to destabilise the Sahel," said Assalat, adding that "a former Malian Tuareg rebel leader is also in Libya", but did not mention his name.

[. . .]

Malian worker Ibrahim Ombotimbe said: "Youths in Tiji robbed us of our money and injured some amongst us."

"Really we suffered," he added. "Africans are currently suffering in Libya. Some think they are with Kadhafi."

The previous article connects with stories like Colin Freeze's "Why black Africans are paying the price for the real or perceived use of mercenaries in Libya" in the Globe and Mail.

A cocked pistol points near the head of the black African teenager. A Libyan rebel barks questions in Arabic, waving an accusing finger as he suggests his captive is a paid pro-government mercenary. The youth’s face freezes with muted terror.

It’s an extraordinarily powerful image, one printed prominently in dozens of newspapers last week. And what makes it all the more potent are the details that the photographer could not capture in his frame.

“Honestly, he didn’t look to me as a mercenary at all,” Reuters’ Goran Tomasevic told The Globe and Mail from Ras Lanuf, the town near where he shot the photo.

The war photographer spoke of how he stumbled on the scene at a rebel checkpoint. There, angry onlookers were egging the interrogators on, claiming the youth – likely from Niger – had already “confessed” to being a foreign fighter. Yet he denied it, again and again.

Such scenes are playing out across Libya these days, as the uprising fuels friend-or-foe fears that resuscitate long-dormant tensions between mostly Arab citizens and foreign workers. “The black African, or sub-Saharan African population is, without any question, suffering repercussions and revenge attacks, for the real or perceived use of mercenaries by Gadhafi forces,” said Fred Abrahams of Human Rights Watch in New York.

[. . .]

Experts fear the Libyan conflict is evolving into a protracted civil war among various tribes. As both sides dig in, they accuse each other of recruiting foreign fighters. Col. Gadhafi claims his enemies are being spurred on by foreign “terrorists.” But many experts believe that the dictator himself is taking advantage of alliances he has forged over the past 40 years, with a variety of rebel forces in nearby countries.