private jails outside the control of the NTC, "with no access to due process in the absence of a functioning police and judiciary". Many of the prisoners are being subjected to torture and systematic abuse, and there are reports of "women held in detention in the absence of female guards and under male supervision, and of children detained alongside adults." A large number of the detainees are sub-Saharan Africans, in some cases accused or suspected of being pro-Gaddafi mercenaries, and some individuals were "being targeted because of the colour of their skin". On 26 January 2012, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced that it had suspended its operations in detention centres in Misrata due to detainees there being tortured and denied urgent medical care. Libyan officials acknowledged that prisoners held by revolutionary forces had been abused, but insisted that the mistreatment had been committed by militias not yet under the control of the new government and that the authorities were trying to eliminate it. A law passed by the NTC ordered militias to refer all cases against Gaddafi supporters to government prosecutors by 1 July 2012. According to the UN, about 8,000 people were still being held in Libya's detention centres as of October 2013. Proliferation of weapons On 31 October 2011, the United Nations Security Council expressed concern over the proliferation of weapons from Gaddafi's stockpiles, worrying they could fall into the hands of al-Qaeda and other militant groups. Officials of the NTC said it was not clear how many weapons were still in circulation. A report by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya said that Gaddafi's government had accumulated a large stockpile of MANPADs, and that although thousands were destroyed during the 2011 military intervention in Libya, there were "increasing concerns over the looting and likely proliferation of these portable defence systems, as well as munitions and mines, highlighting the potential risk to local and regional stability." In November, a convoy loaded with heavy weaponry was intercepted when trying to cross from Libya into neighboring Niger, according to Nigerien security officials. The officials said the convoy was composed of loyalists of Muammar Gaddafi. Mokhtar Belmokhtar, believed to be one of the leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, acknowledged that his Al-Qaeda franchise had acquired weaponry from Gaddafi's arsenal. Influence of Islamists and foreign powers In August, Abdelhakim Belhadj was appointed commander of the Tripoli Military Council, a