http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17481181
Scrap metal and old cars are being driven to the southern border
Although there was relatively little fighting in this dusty, run-down town during last year's uprising against Libya's former leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, there have been violent clashes in recent weeks in which more than 100 people have lost their lives.
The fighting has been between local Arab Zwia groups and the Tabu - black Africans associated with the smuggling trade from Chad and further afield.
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Sub-Saharans are often accused in Libya of being paid fighters. Most, including the vast majority of people we came across, had nothing whatsoever to do with the fighting. They were clearly frightened and desperate people.
With little evidence of a co-ordinated approach to the problem from a non-existent central authority in distant Tripoli, the local official showed me the new, desperate, approach to containing the crisis.
"This is how we're going to keep the refugees out," says Mr Abdulrahim, showing me a small mountain of old, wrecked cars some already loaded into trucks.
The plan was simple - but almost certainly unworkable. A 150km (93 mile) "barrier" along part of Libya's border with Chad, five metres high and made from nothing but old cars.
Desperate times bring desperate measures.
Scrap metal and old cars are being driven to the southern border
Although there was relatively little fighting in this dusty, run-down town during last year's uprising against Libya's former leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, there have been violent clashes in recent weeks in which more than 100 people have lost their lives.
The fighting has been between local Arab Zwia groups and the Tabu - black Africans associated with the smuggling trade from Chad and further afield.
--
Sub-Saharans are often accused in Libya of being paid fighters. Most, including the vast majority of people we came across, had nothing whatsoever to do with the fighting. They were clearly frightened and desperate people.
With little evidence of a co-ordinated approach to the problem from a non-existent central authority in distant Tripoli, the local official showed me the new, desperate, approach to containing the crisis.
"This is how we're going to keep the refugees out," says Mr Abdulrahim, showing me a small mountain of old, wrecked cars some already loaded into trucks.
The plan was simple - but almost certainly unworkable. A 150km (93 mile) "barrier" along part of Libya's border with Chad, five metres high and made from nothing but old cars.
Desperate times bring desperate measures.