A Libyan air force major has confirmed that Ghanaians are among the mercenaries fighting on behalf of Muammar Gaddafi.

Libya recruited hundreds of mercenaries from Sub-Saharan Africa to help quell a popular uprising that is threatening to unseat veteran leader Gaddafi after more than 41 years in office.

According to the Major Rajib Feytouni, he had personally witnessed 4,000-5,000 mercenaries flown into his air force base on Libyan military transport planes, beginning on about 14 February – several days before the uprising started.

"They [the planes] had 300 men at a time, all of them coming out with weapons," he said. "They were all from Africa: Ghanaians, Kenyans."

His story could not be independently verified.

Several of the alleged soldiers of fortune are being held in a jail, in Libya's second city, Benghazi, at the top of the ransacked courthouse. One was briefly brought to meet a western journalist. He was quickly ushered away by lawyers who said he was not allowed to speak until the case against him was finished.

But the court of public opinion on the heaving street below had already convicted the unnamed African, along with anyone else linked to what they believe are the dying days of 42 years of sadistic oppression.