Sahel is a hellhole due to insecurity in Libya - Mahamat Idris Deby

• Mahamat Idris Deby says insecurity in Libya is the main contirbutory factor to chaos in the Sahel region

• According to son of former Chadian leader, his dad was killed by mercenaries who attacked the country from Libya

• Libya descended into chaos in 2011 after a NATO-led operation ousted Muammar Gaddafi

The Sahel will remain a hellhole until Libya is returned to stability, this is the view of Mahamat Idriss Deby leader of Chad's Transitional Military Council.

Mahamat avers that mercenaties with sophisticated weapons were grouping and launching attacks on the Sahel region from the vast north African country which descended into chaos after the 2011 NATO-led overthrow of long serving leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Speaking during a courtesy call on Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari weeks back, the young Deby said it was time for continental and global actors to work to return Libya to peace.

“Mercenaries from Libya, with sophisticated weapons, had joined insurgents to attack Chad. Marshal (Late Idris Deby) went to face them with his troops. It was a bitter-sweet victory, because we won the battle, but lost Marshal in the process.

“Plenty of mercenaries with sophisticated weapons are threatening our region from Libya, “ Gen Mahamat added.

He urged the United Nations and other international organizations to ensure that the mercenaries were disarmed, “and reintegrated in an orderly fashion,” warning that if such was not done, “more chaos and instability lay ahead in the Sahel.”

It is not the first time that Libya has been pointed out as the source of rising insecurity south of the Sahara, specifically in the Sahel region.

President Buhari has mentioned that issue years ago as has Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni weeks back during his swearing in.

Museveni has long held that the forced ouster of Gaddafi against the African Union position exposed a weakness on the part of Africa to defend its own, he however stressed that Gaddafi had also abandoned Tripoli too early in the fight against invading forces and armed local opposition.