Gaddafi son crosses Niger border

A convoy carrying ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s son al-Saadi has crossed into neighbouring Niger, a spokesman for Niger’s government said.

The fugitive dictator’s 37-year-old son is one of the highest-profile former regime figures to flee to the landlocked African nation.

Al-Saadi entered Niger in a convoy with nine other people, Niger Justice Minister Amadou Morou said yesterday.

The vehicles were travelling south toward the outpost of Agadez, where other fleeing Libyan loyalists are believed to be holed up in a hotel.

“I wish to announce that one of Gaddafi’s sons – al-Saadi Gaddafi – was intercepted in the north of Niger by a patrol of the Nigerian military,” Mr Morou told reporters.

He said al-Saadi “has no status at all” in Niger, indicating that he has not been granted refugee status, which would guarantee him certain rights.

Since last week, several convoys carrying senior officials of the former Libyan regime as well as civilians and soldiers have made their way across the porous desert border into Niger.

Among them were several of Gaddafi’s top military officers, including his chief of security and the head of his southern command.

Niger has faced increasing scrutiny for allowing the former regime members onto its soil, and al-Saadi’s arrival will likely intensify international pressure on the country to cooperate with Libya’s new rulers.

They want all Gaddafi’s sons – and Gaddafi himself, who is on the run – to be turned over for trial.

Last week, the US urged Niger to detain any individuals who may be subject to prosecution in Libya, as well as to confiscate their weapons and impound any state property, such as money or jewels, that were illegally taken out of the country.

While some senior former regime officials have managed to escape, Libya’s new leaders have arrested several former high-ranking regime officials since the then-rebel fighters swept into Tripoli on August 21, effectively bring an end to Gaddafi’s nearly 42-year rule.

Yesterday, anti-Gaddafi forces in Tripoli captured the former head of the regime’s external intelligence service, Abu Zayd Dourda, said Anes Sharif, a spokesman for Tripoli’s military council.

A long-time Gaddafi insider, Mr Dourda also served as prime minister in the 1990s.

As Libya’s new leaders move to exert their authority in Tripoli, forces loyal to Gaddafi continue to hold out in three strongholds – Sirte on the Mediterranean coast, Sabha in the southern desert, and Bani Walid south east of Tripoli.