Council spokesman Hafiz Ghoga at a press conference in Benghazi, the main city in “liberated Libya”, made tough accusations against several African states and urged the UN to bomb the “African mercenaries of Ghaddafi.”

According to Mr Ghoga, the governments of Kenya, Niger, Mali were supporting the Ghaddafi regime with regular troops. These troops were among the “African mercenaries” killing civilian Libyans protesting against the regime.

The National Libyan Council spokesman further claimed that there was strong evidence that “the government of Algeria” was supporting this alleged African offensive against the people of Libya. There had earlier been rumours of “mercenaries” being brought into Libya over the Algerian border in the south-west.

The statement by the National Libyan Council, urging for the killing of “African mercenaries” and claiming African governments’ involvement are the most extreme anti-African statements made so far in the “liberated” areas of the country.

Earlier, afrol News has documented how a wave of racism throughout “liberated Libya” has caused a witch-hunt of sub-Saharan Africans, with arbitrary arrests of African-looking persons and occasional lynch mobs killing Africans.

So far, Libyan revolutionary sources mostly have blamed Chadians and the government of Chad for the alleged existence of “African mercenaries” in the country. Chadian Foreign Affairs Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat today issued a strong statement against these claims.

“These are outrageous and malicious reports. The Chadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is protesting against these serious charges, whose consequences could be dire for thousands of Chadians living in the territory of Libya,” Foreign Minister Mahamat said.

Most other African governments so far have not reacted to the sharpening rhetoric of Libyan revolutionaries. Especially the African Union (AU) has been noted for its silence on the “African mercenary” issue – a silence that has been called “scandalous” by several sources, both those claiming there are African mercenaries in Libya and those denying it.

In Kenya, officials yesterday told the independent ‘Daily Nation’ there were no proof of Kenyan mercenaries operating in Libya. “The only [Kenyan] individuals in Libya are embassy staff and students who are not involved militarily,” Foreign Affairs assistant Minister Richard Onyonka was quoted as saying.

In Mali, the government has as yet to react. The Bamako Foreign Ministry has rather increased its efforts to evacuate Malian citizens from Libya, following increasing reports about attacks. However, only some 130 Malians, out of an estimated 15,000, so far have been evacuated through Tunisia.

In Niger, neighbouring Libya, government yesterday issued its first statement regarding the situation in Libya. In very diplomatic manners, the government spokesman voiced concern about the security of Nigerien citizens in Libya, saying its Tripoli Embassy had received orders to “issue travel documents at no cost for citizens wishing to return home.”

The Niamey government further confirmed that so far, over 1,500 Nigerien citizens had fled Libya overland, through the Sahara desert, arriving the oasis city of Agadéz. More are underway, with many other sub-Saharan Africans fleeing through the same route.

As defected army units and civilians in “liberated” eastern Libya are eager to demonstrate unity, “African mercenaries” are increasingly singled out as the enemy. Africans are systematically hunted down.

“Mercenaries” is the most used word among anti-Ghaddafi Libyans these days. It is increasingly used to describe everybody loyal to the Ghaddafi regime, while it for most people refers to “Black Africans” allegedly in the regime’s service.

As one city after the other gets “liberated”, mostly following the defection of Libyan army and police units, civilians and Libyan troops agree to stop mentioning the recent fights between Libyan nationals. The “mercenaries” were and are the enemy.

Sidsel Wold, an experienced journalist from Norway’s ‘NRK’ broadcaster currently in Al-Bayda, experienced the rhetoric first-handedly. She was told that the large battle about this east Libyan city had been fought around an army barrack, which everybody referred to as being defended by “mercenaries”.

Let to film the captured “mercenaries”, most turned out to have an Arab appearance. The few persons of sub-Saharan African appearance were all in civilian clothes. It became clear that several of these African “mercenaries” had been captured after the fighting.

Ms Wold also witnessed and filmed the interrogation of a captured Chadian citizen by a defected army officer. The Chadian, with civilian clothes, insisted he was a normal “civilian; a worker.” Asked why he and four other Africans had been observed fleeing, he said he had been “scared by the shooting.”

The defected Libyan army officer clearly stated he did “not believe” him. The attempt by a group of five sub-Saharan Africans to escape the city was “suspicious” in itself. The group was kept in detention – however in seemingly humane conditions – suspected of being “mercenaries”.

In Al-Bayda, the hunt-down and arbitrary arrest of sub-Saharan Africans goes on. Ms Wold also spoke to a group of Libyan youths, monitoring the streets in accordance with the city’s interim authorities – made up of civilians and defected army officers. The youths openly told her they were out, trying “to catch mercenaries to hand them over to authorities.”

Reports from other “liberated” Libyan cities are similar. In Benghazi last week, citizens attacked and destroyed a building housing 36 citizens from Chad, Niger and Sudan. The Africans were accused of being “mercenaries” and subsequently arrested, local residents told Western journalists.

The brave anti-Ghaddafi Libyans reporting about their fight against the regime through social media in the internet or by telephone are sending out the same message. The “Libyan Youth Movement”, standing in constant phone contact with Libyans in the war zone and sending updates and videos via social media, generally refers to those still resisting the popular revolution as “mercenaries”.

These sources frequently talk about interim authorities in “liberated cities” arming local youths to go after “mercenaries”. There are frequent messages in a victorious tone about “mercenaries running away from protesters” and youths “catching mercenaries.”

Equally disturbing, the most appalling scenes – including the butchering of Libyan children and women – are always attributed “mercenaries”, seemingly in the belief that a Libyan would never do such barbaric acts. No documentation of the perpetrator is ever presented.

As the public hatred against the “black African mercenaries” is increasing, not all Africans arbitrarily captured are treated as humanely as by Al-Bayda interim authorities. There is a growing number of reports about sub-Saharan Africans being killed by lynching mobs in “liberated Libya”.

For example, last week a Turkish construction worker told the ‘BBC’: “We had 70-80 people from Chad working for our company. They were cut dead with pruning shears and axes, attackers saying: ‘You are providing troops for Ghaddafi.’ The Sudanese were also massacred. We saw it for ourselves.”

A Sierra Leonean worker in Tripoli reported to his friend: “All black Africans are becoming targets. I write to inform you how deteriorating the condition in Tripoli is getting by the hour, especially for us black Africans who have been threatened by violence accused of siding with the regime.”

“Somalis in Tripoli say they are being hunted on suspicion of being mercenaries,” spokesperson Melissa Fleming of the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR recently reported, adding the agency was “increasingly concerned.”

‘Time’ journalist Abigail Hauslohner, currently in Benghazi, talked to volunteers Hayan Salaama and Idris Shebany saying they were “afraid people will attack the Africans.” Workers were attacked while making their escape, they added. A Ghanaian worker added: “The Libyans, when they see the blacks, they will kill them.”

Several thousands of Africans are fleeing Libya towards Niger. Those already arriving Agadéz told the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) about “the thousands of sub-Saharan Africans holed up inside their homes without any assistance at various places including Moursouk, Sabah, Misrata, Tripoli and Benghazi, desperately searching for vehicles to escape the targeted violence they feel is coming their way.”

The number of sub-Saharan Africans residing in Libya is unclear, but civil society sources speak of “several hundreds of thousands” legally registered Africans. In addition, a very large number of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers are in the country.

It is widely believed that there indeed are mercenary troops in Libya, event though the proof presented is poor. Several sources speak of a secrete recruitment of mercenaries among several rebel groups the Ghaddafi regime has supported through its history; especially from the ongoing Darfur conflict.

No reliable sources are found documenting this, however. The Libyan League of Human Rights today claimed that there were around 6,000 mercenaries in Libya, “of which 3,000 are in Tripoli.” But it presents no documentation.

Several videos and photos, allegedly documenting groups of mercenaries in Libya, circulate in the internet. Most tell little about the origin of these pro-Ghaddafi forces, which also could be Libyan. A few however show dark-skinned individuals – plain-clothed or uniformed – seemingly of African origin.

The few Africans caught with weapons and speaking to Western journalists claimed not to be mercenaries, but were looking for work in Libya. They claimed to have been picked up by officials and promised work in Tripoli. In the capital, they were sent to army barracks; given arms and a large sum of money and ordered to shoot at protesters.

But most sub-Saharan Africans arbitrarily detained in “liberated Libya” deny ever to have taken part in the fighting, saying they are workers or looking for work.

Stronger and stronger doubts about the existence of African mercenaries are emerging. Today, scared Ghanaians finally left to flee to Egypt said they were forced “to pose as mercenaries” by Libyans, who later posted their pictures on social media such as YouTube and Facebook.

No African government, not even the African Union (AU) – has reacted to the claims of African mercenaries in Libya, except Chad. “Chadians are not sent or recruited in Chad to serve as mercenaries in Libya,” government said in a recent statement, adding that reports about Chadian mercenaries were “likely to cause serious physical and material harm to Chadians residing in Libya.”

During his phone call to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel Saturday, the U.S. President Barack Obama said that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi should leave now as he has “lost the legitimacy to rule”.

“When a leader’s only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now,” said Obama to Merkel.

On Friday, Obama’s administration has unilaterally imposed sanctions on Libya and temporarily closed its embassy there. Although the U.S. has criticized Gaddafi’s regime actions against Libyan protesters before, the Friday’s moves were the strongest steps it has taken so far.

Reportedly, Obama has also issued an executive order to impose travel bans on Gaddafi and his family and to freeze their assets. Apparently, in relation to the presidential order, the U.S. Treasury Department ordered American banks to scrutinize accounts linked to senior Libyan officials and to inform authorities of any attempts to misappropriate or divert public funds.

The American measures come as the U.N. Security Council and Human RightCouncil also works to take action against Libya. But so far, U.S. military action is seemed unlikely, although the administration has not ruled out participation in an internationally-administered protective no-fly zone.

NAIROBI, 25 February (IRIN) – Anti-government protesters, who have taken to the streets of Khartoum and other Sudanese cities over recent weeks, run the risk of sexual assault, torture and detention, say human rights workers and demonstrators.

“We confirmed five cases of women who were sexually assaulted during or after the protests,” said Rania Rajji, Amnesty International’s Sudan researcher, adding that there had also been cases of torture, and injured people being denied medical care while in detention. According to Amnesty, some 60 people who took part in protests are in the custody of security forces.

However, government spokesman Rabie Abdul Attie told IRIN the number was between four and 10.

“They are detained because they violated the law, you need to get a licence to demonstrate in Khartoum. That is to protect people and allow them full freedom of speech,” he said.

The alleged sexual abuse against female demonstrators has also been condemned by the Sudan Democracy First Group, a coalition of activists, trades unionists and academics.

The group released a statement [ http://www.ahewar.org/eng/show.art.asp?aid=1252 ] on 20 January detailing the experiences of six women detained by security services in February, including the daughter of prominent government critic Hassan al-Turabi, who is also now in detention.

One of the women, according to the statement, had been “beaten on all parts of her body during her interrogation”. Others were forcibly undressed and several were verbally abused “with revolting sexual language” during their detention.

In Khartoum, about 150 people were arrested and one student killed during clashes between demonstrations and police, said Amnesty.

According to media reports, protests have taken place not only in Khartoum but also in its twin city, Omdurman and El Obeid.

At least one newspaper has been shut down, said the Committee to Protect Journalists, while students told IRIN a university had also been closed.

Facebook foes

The Sudanese protesters share some of the same awareness-raising tools as their counterparts elsewhere in the Middle East: Twitter and Facebook pages, such as “Youth For Change” [ http://on.fb.me/i6Mp5b ], where one poster wrote: “Sudanese people are not going to be silenced. It is time to demand our rights.”

Similar Facebook pages include “The Spark” [ http://on.fb.me/e6g1gP ] and “WeR Fed Up” [ http://www.facebook.com/Girifna ], produced by Girifna, [http://www.girifna.com/blog-girifna/?page_id=2520 ] a “non-violent direct action group”, calling for the ruling National Congress Party’s resignation and replacement with a more inclusive transitional government.

“With the international media focused on Egypt in the past few weeks, the detentions of protesters in Sudan have been greatly under-represented,” Dahlia, a university student who took part in some of the protests, told IRIN by email.

One of her friends, Habab, said two of her brothers were still detained since their 30 January arrest and were experiencing very harsh treatment. Sami, another student working for an NGO in Khartoum, said his fiancée had been detained and tortured by security forces. She was arrested during demonstrations in Gezira University.

“I decided a while ago that I won’t wait for someone to bring the change I want,” another student told IRIN, asking not to be identified. “I want to live in my country with dignity and I realized that people are actually waiting for a miracle. Most people are not willing to put themselves in danger. So when I heard about the mobilizations online, I decided that I will go on demos; that’s the first time I joined something like this.

“There is a consensus among the different groups mobilizing people that it is time for change and that they are going to support this with all means. It is important to note that we are all working to spread the word on the corruption, the killings and the torture. Everything [President Omar el] Bashir and his government did in the past 21 years,” she emphasized, adding that people in Sudan were joining efforts for another round of streets protests.

Price factors

The unrest in Sudan comes amid rising prices of food and other basic necessities, as well as cuts to fuel and sugar subsidies and the near-unanimous decision by South Sudan, in a 9 January referendum, to secede from the North.

“There is clearly discontent in Northern Sudan with the prospect of Southern secession and with recently enacted economic austerity measures. But the protests in Khartoum were relatively small and appear not to have developed much momentum, in part because the security services in Sudan appear to be relatively loyal to the regime,” said Joe Temin from the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), a think-tank based in Washington.

Government spokesman Attie, however, said the Sudanese protests bore no comparison with those in Egypt. “In Egypt, there was a gap between the rulers and the people, but not in our country [where the rulers] live with the people,” he told the New York Times.

In an apparent move to appease protesters, El-Bashir, in power for more than 20 years, announced on 21 February that he would not stand in elections in four years’ time. He also said Sudan’s future would soon be discussed with the opposition in a national dialogue.