As reported by the telegraph, the Islamic State is building an "army of the poor" in its new haven in Libya by recruiting footsoldiers from Africa's poorest nations, Libyan intelligence chiefs say.

The terror group’s Libyan chapter is swelling its ranks by offering cash bounties of up to $1,000 to people from impoverished neighbouring countries such as Chad, Mali and Sudan. In countries where many earn barely $1 a day, even a few hundred dollars is the equivalent of a year's salary.

Libyan officials admit that they are almost powerless to stop the incomers, many of whom reach Libya using existing people-smuggling routes used by African migrants heading to Europe.

Isil (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) is copying a strategy first used by Libya's late dictator, Colonel Gaddafi, who recruited thousands of mercenaries from black Africa to serve in his armies and to suppress the revolution that overthrew him five years ago.

bbabo.Net