By Libya Herald reporter.
Tunis, 25 November 2017:
Media across Africa have fallen for a story claiming that in the wake of the CNN investigation into sub-Saharan African migrants being auctioned in Libya Chad is planning to intervene in the country.
Publications from the Comoros to Mali, Benin to Senegal, and even further afield, have published the story in which a Chadian army spokesperson was quoted supposedly saying that his country’s forces would free the migrants and deal with “the slavers who keep them”.
“Demonstrations in front of Libyan embassies and indignation on social media will not change anything,” a certain Colonel Fader Amel was quoted as saying in the local media. “Two battalions of our valiant soldiers and the problem will be solved in a few days.”
Social media in Libya, too, ran with the report.
The story was in fact a joke and originated in an online satirical publication called State Afrique. A little checking would have revealed that the colonel was previously quoted by the same French-language site saying that in the wake of the Paradise Papers revelation, Chad was prepared to invade and annex tax havens such the Caymen Islands, the Isle of Man and Bermuda, and, even earlier, would invade North Korea.
However, in the furore since the CNN investigation, a calm and composed reaction has not been particularly evident.
