Libya's remote southern desert a haven for jihadist training camps

Libya's remote desert south has become a haven for north African jihadis who have set up training camps in what has traditionally been a hotbed of arms smuggling.

Weapons looted from his arsenal have made their way to the so-called Salvador Triangle, a no-man's land formed by the porous borders of Libya, Algeria and Niger, experts say.

For years the triangle was the backyard of smugglers and traffickers through which illicit weapons flowed easily between North Africa and countries in sub-Saharan Africa. But since the uprising, the activity of al-Qaeda-linked jihadis has flourished in the region, buoyed by the inability of the Libyan authorities to tame the armed groups.

On October 10, France said its forces had destroyed a convoy belonging to al-Qaeda's North African branch in Niger that was carrying arms from Libya to Mali.

The operation was part of a counterterrorism campaign led by France to flush out jihadis, including al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI), from the Sahel region. Jihadis had occupied the desert north of Mali for 10 months before they were ousted in January last year in a French-led military intervention.

"The south of Libya has become a hideout for extremists following the French military intervention in Mali," said Mohamed Fazzani, an expert on jihadist groups.

"It is very difficult for any army to control such a vast region, unless it has sophisticated technology" because the jihadis "know very well the terrain and can set up camps despite harsh conditions."

An intelligence official, who declined to be named, said jihadis had set up three "secret camps" in southern Libya where hundreds of militants were training to fight in Mali, Iraq or Syria.

"These camps have become the key providers of combat-ready jihadis," the source said.

Libya expert Jason Pack said jihadis pushed out from northern Mali had set up training camps in Libya's south, adding that the region had become "much more" than a transit route for gunmen and smugglers.

"Drones have spotted training camps and Western intelligence officers have been to these places," he said.

"I don't have precise figures. But I'm sure that there are Libyans among these jihadist groups," added Pack, a researcher on Libya at the University of Cambridge and president of Libya-analysis.com

Both Pack and Fazzani also drew links between jihadis entrenched in Libya's remote south and powerful Islamist militia in the north and east of the country.

These groups are challenging the authority of the government and the internationally recognised parliament elected in June, and have swept across the capital Tripoli and second city Benghazi.

According to Fazzani the jihadis in the south received logistical support from Islamists in northern Libya.

In January last year, jihadis coming in from Libya stormed the In Amenas desert gas plant in the far southeast of Algeria. About 40 hostages, all but one of them foreign, were killed in a bloody four-day siege and army operation that followed.

Army spokesman Colonel Ahmed al-Mesmari agreed that the training camps had sprouted up but said that Libyan troops were ill-equipped and under-staffed to confront the jihadis.

"The army suffers from a lack of means and cannot carry out regular patrols in these immense regions," Mesmari said.

"Furthermore, the armed forces are worn out by the fighting under way in the east and west of the country."