Qaddafi's ties to rebel groups scrutinized as 'African mercenaries' patrol Libya

Among his closest client states were Chad, Niger, and Mali, nations of Africa’s semi-arid Sahel region with unstable governments and few resources to develop themselves.

“The relationship between Libya and Chad is much deeper than the others,” says Mr. Vircoulon of the International Crisis Group. “Libya has been involved with almost all of the mediation efforts in Chad, between the government and rebels, and throughout the civil war in Chad. His mediation never really led to sustainable peace, but from an African perspective, he was eager to be seen as the only one able to calm things down in Chad. It was a status thing.”

Libya’s aid to its poorer African neighbors may have been an ego boost for a man who liked to see himself as a leader of a unified Africa, but his aid money did very little to help uplift the lives of the very poor, say experts like Vircoulon. Most of the aid comes in the form of investment, from the luxury LAICO (Libyan African Investment Company) hotel chains scattered around many African capitals to the OilLibya petrol stations found in many major African cities. These investments don’t create many jobs, and they certainly don’t do much in the way of uplifting the lives of rural Africans, but they are visible reminders of Libya’s importance on the continent.

Ties to regional rebels and warlords

When Qaddafi did invest in people, they were usually soldiers and quite often rebel leaders. He has reportedly offered training and financial aid to myriad militant groups and figures, including warlords like Liberia's former President Charles Taylor, Sierra Leone's former rebel leader Foday Sankoh, and current Chad President Idriss Deby, also a former rebel leader. Mr. Deby’s government is believed to be heavily reliant on Libya for its budgetary needs.

Libya’s mediation in Chad between Deby and the Sudanese government of President Omar al-Bashir seems to have born some fruit, stopping those two countries from using rebel movements in each other’s territory in a decade-long feud. Since the mediation, Chad has seen no more reprises of the two stunning rebel advances that reached Chad’s capital of N’Djamena, although Sudan’s Darfur region continues to see sporadic violence between rebel groups and government forces.

Yet Western diplomats say Qaddafi’s mediation is largely self-serving.

“I think his role in the Sudan-Chad conflict and destabilization in southern Algeria have greatly aided the opportunity space [for rebel groups],” says a Western diplomat who covers the Sahel region. “This diminishes government control and allows groups like Taureg rebels and AQIM [Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb] to flourish, and diverts state resources away from populations toward security.”

But if Libya’s foreign policy causes as many problems as it solves, why do African leaders put up with it, and why don’t they speak out when Qaddafi’s regime is unleashing violence against his own people?

Perhaps it is “the residual appeal of his role as a leader of the developing world anti-Western and third-way movement,” suggests the Western diplomat. “It’s a good question.”

IN PICTURES: Libya protests

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