AGADEZ (AFP) – A 200-vehicle convoy with Libya’s toppled leader Muammar Gaddafi rumoured aboard has crossed into Niger and is heading towards the capital Niamey on Tuesday, officials told AFP.
The convoy entered the Sahelian country late Monday and drove through the city of Agadez, a stronghold of the former Tuareg rebellion the ousted Libyan leader once supported, a local military source said on condition of anonymity.
“I saw an exceptionally large and rare convoy of several dozen vehicles enter Agadez from Arlit… and go towards Niamey,” the source said, amid speculation that Gaddafi may be in it.
“There are persistent rumours that Muammar Gaddafi or one of his sons are travelling in the convoy,” the source said, adding that the convoy included civilian and military vehicles.
The new Libyan leadership in Tripoli simply confirmed it knew of a convoy crossing into Niger.
“We can confirm that around 200 cars crossed from Libya to Niger, but we can’t confirm who was in this convoy,” Jalal al-Gallal, spokesman for the National Transitional Council in the Libyan capital, told AFP.
He added however that “these types of convoys usually carry Gaddafi or one of his sons.”
The nearest border to Arlit, a mining town north of Agadez, is with Algeria, suggesting the convoy may have left Libya through eastern Algeria before entering northeastern Niger.
A journalist from a private radio station in Agadez said he saw “a convoy of several dozen vehicles crossing the city and heading towards Niamey.”
The journalist said several people reported seeing in the convoy Rhissa Ag Boula, a figurehead Tuareg rebel with old ties to Muammar Gaddafi. The rebel promptly denied being in the convoy.
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