David Smith
Guardian
September 7, 2011
The hunt for Muammar Gaddafi has widened across Africa after Libyan army convoys crossed hundreds of miles of desert into neighbouring Niger, rumoured to be bound for Burkina Faso.
Tantalising clues of a possible escape route for Gaddafi filled the void created by the disappearance of the ousted leader whose face was ubiquitous in Libya for more than 40 years.
Reports of multiple convoys fleeing to Niger with looted gold and cash also suggested that the will of regime loyalists was failing and their last pockets of resistance in Libya could be near collapse.
Details of the size of the convoys, and who was in them, were scarce as they made their way across the vast swath of Sahara with more than 1,000 miles between any populated areas on the two sides of the border.
But military sources from France and Niger told Reuters that a convoy of between 200 and 250 vehicles from Libya was escorted to the northern city of Agadez by the Nigerien army. Amid speculation about a possible South African-brokered deal to allow Gaddafi to go free, there were rumours he might join the convoy en route to neighbouring Burkina Faso, which has offered him asylum.
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