Reuters reports a convoy of 10 vehicles crossed into Niger carrying money taken from a branch of the Central Bank of Libya, confirmed by a spokesman for the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) today. "They took the money from the central bank in Sirte," Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, an NTC spokesman told Reuters in Benghazi. Sirte is the birthplace of fugitive strongman Muammar Gaddafi.
An NTC official earlier said a Libyan convoy of 10 vehicles carrying gold and cash crossed into Niger late on Monday, citing sources among the Tuareg people who live in the Sahara desert on both sides of the frontier. Reuters said today that what appears now to be a string of 200 to 250 vehicles could have been part of a dramatic secret attempt by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to find refuge in a friendly African state, possibly Burkina Faso, which has offered him asylum. But other reports suggested that the vehicles were carrying Tuareg fighters who had been paid to fight for him.
The possibility might also exist that France may have brokered a deal between the rebels and Colonel Qaddafi but the French government declined to confirm the report. France was the first country to recognize the rebels who launched their uprising in February and has played a central role along with Britain and the United States in the NATO air campaign to weaken his forces.
Asked whether NATO was aware of the convoy’s reported movements, officials of the alliance at its headquarters in Brussels and its Libya operations base in Naples, Italy, declined to comment, saying they did not discuss intelligence matters.
EU-Digest
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