Dhibet , Tunisia ( CNN ) -- The border crossing at Dhibet in southern Tunisia is not much to look at . A small police post , another for the Garde Nationale , a customs shed -- and beyond that 200 meters of no-man 's land . In between here and the Libyan border , a dog -- presumably of dual nationality -- lies in the sunshine . Behind the red-and-white-checkered barrier on the Libyan side , a handful of soldiers pace up and down . Another peers down from a roof . A truck with a large green Libyan flag draws up . A smiling Colonel Moammar Gadhafi looks down from a mural and a large banner bears the legend `` Congratulations to the brother leader . '' Several days ago , Libyan soldiers abandoned this remote frontier post as anti-government groups took over the town of Nalut , 70 kilometers from the border along a twisting mountain road . But on Monday Libyan troops loyal to Gadhafi returned to reclaim control of the frontier . A Tunisian man at the border -- one of several attracted from the nearby town to witness this rare burst of activity -- excitedly shows a CNN crew cellphone video of a Libyan military helicopter that had landed with reinforcements . Another murmurs that if we want to enter Libya , he knows smuggling trails through the mountains -- forbidding ochre-colored cliffs that rise on either side of the border . Unlike the crossing 150 miles to the north , the border at Dhibet has no crush of foreign workers desperate to escape the violence in Libya . There is a trickle of Egyptians , a few from Mali coming over , but the loudest noise is the chirping of sparrows in the customs shed . One young Egyptian who worked in a Libyan aluminum plant , talks of an odyssey from Tripoli , where he worked . Threatened by Libyan soldiers , he says he and a few friends fled south and tried to enter Algeria . When that did n't work , he ended up here . He and others say Nalut remains in the control of anti-government groups , but there is anxiety that pro-Gadhafi forces nearby will launch an assault . Like much of Libya , the fate of this area is far from decided . In the late afternoon , there is a shift change among the handful of Tunisian soldiers deployed at the border . The new arrivals lounge against the border gate , chatting and smoking -- oblivious to the drama playing out a few miles away . A Berber shepherd swaddled in rough brown cloth minds his flock of goats just beyond the razor wire . There is sudden movement on the Libyan side . The gate goes up and several 4x4 vehicles , caked in dust , pass through . They are , bizarrely enough , part of a rally - - `` Libye 2011 . '' The sun slips behind the mountains , the sparrows fall quiet -- and the border at Dhibet waits for its next arrivals .
At a lonely spot on the Egyptian - Libyan border , all is quiet . Like much of Africa , the coast of this area is far from clear .