GADAFI TREASURE

Nearly six years after his death, the shadow of Mouammar Kadhafi still hangs over Libya. In October 2011, the bloody end of the former dictator had marked the end of the resistance from government forces after nine months of civil war. But the embers had been quick to turn on in a country torn among ethnic groups, tribes and clans since the fall of the "Guide". Since 2014, which is sometimes called the "Libyan Civil War" has seen to three self-proclaimed governments and several jihadist groups including the Islamic State.

The noise of weapons also conceals another ghost of Gaddafi: the huge treasure he had managed to send out of Libya before falling. These hundreds million have excited dozens of treasure hunters, but also the different factions sharing power between Tripoli and Benghazi. We were writing here in 2015 how individuals had set out to find scattered riches of the Gaddafi family worldwide.

Diamonds fantasized

"By some estimates, this windfall made of gold, bundles of dollars or diamonds amounted to nearly 150 million €. But no one laid hands on since the revolution", explained at the time US site The Daily Beast, which published a lengthy investigation on the subject. In any case the assertions of the US authorities which estimated rather the evaporated Gaddafi "treasure" to 800 or 900 million $.

In 2013, South Africa officially recorded the handover to the Libyan government about 780 million dollars deposited by the Gaddafi family in the country's banks. No trace of diamonds or gold bars however.

But a new report of the Security Council of the UN published early in June claims that hundreds of millions of dollars sheltered by the ousted dictator had so far escaped the UN investigators were able to trace the path of some large wads of cash.   

"Investigations revealed that even more money than what was estimated was first sent to South Africa through financial institutions. Information revealed in 2016 shows that 800 million dollars were transferred to an account of the South African bank Standard Bank to another of Stanbic Bank Kenya, "says the Quartz news site which relies on data from UN report.

Business in Ouagadougou

Another part of the loot was traced in West Africa. Investigators of the UN Security Council said they were alerted at least by six people about attempts to return the money in Libya. "In one case, the UN report cites 560 million dollars in 100 bills that were hidden in steel boxes somewhere in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso," notes Quartz site.

The money would have been stored waiting to be returned to Libya by a local Burkinabe company, International Transportation Company convoy, which had received a commission from 10 to 15% of the sum to effect the transfer. The Burkina government has denied the existence of this company yet it has a mailing address in Ouagadougou according to the UN.

The best way to collect a sum of  Gaddafi treasure is perhaps to "participate" in his return.

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