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Over the weekend, concerns grew in Tripoli about the fate of black African workers who many Libyan rebels believe were mercenaries for Qaddafi.

Tripoli, Libya

The gates of the prison in the Ain Zarra suburb of Tripoli open to admit an open truckload of detainees. They are all sub-Saharan Africans. Inside, three huge riot police trucks sit in the courtyard with several dozen more detainees inside; most of them are black Africans, too.

“We were all hiding in the basement of my house when they arrested us,” says one man, who claims he is from Niger and has been working as a welder in Libya for two years.

The men are all accused of being mortazaga, mercenaries, in the service of Col. Muammar Qaddafi. But they maintain that they are only guest workers caught up in the violence of Libya’s war.

Read the full article from the Christian Science Monitor.