@MizLadyJackiJacqui Libya Khacham
Where is the logic?! African migrants flock to #Libya despite the prospect of "facing horror at hands of rebels"af.reuters.com/article/topNew…
African migrants take deadly gamble in Libya
By Abdoulaye Massalatchi
AGADEZ, Niger (Reuters) - A steady stream of Africans seeking a better life in Europe is weaving by truck and pack animal through Niger's mountain passes toward Libya -- hoping the chaos there will ease their flight to the boats awaiting them on the Mediterranean.
These desperate migrants have heard the stories of Africans tortured and executed in Libya on suspicion of fighting as mercenaries alongside Muammar Gaddafi's forces.
But for them, the risks from gunmen are an acceptable alternative to being turned back by a border patrol.
"They say blacks are being killed as suspected Gaddafi fighters, but I say we all have a destiny," said Sule, a 25-year-old Nigerian migrant who did not want to give his last name.
"I see this war as an opportunity that I cannot let pass if I want to make it to Europe."
Lured by the seductive mirage of a better life in the West, tens of thousands of Africans trek every year across deserts or risk perilous sea crossings in try to slip illegally into Europe via Spain or Italy.
But for Sule and his companions -- and the dozens of others arriving in northern Niger each day -- that gamble means passing through what may be the most dangerous place in the world right now for an African.
Refugee camps within Libya and sprouting along its land borders contain thousands of fleeing Africans telling tales of horror at the hands of rebel fighters suspicious they are pro-Gaddafi mercenaries. Continued...
