The Polisario Camps in Algeria Live in Total insecurity
The intersection of the existing security dilemma in the African Sahel region, with the security dilemma that Algeria also made by setting up the “Polisario” camps, is evident in the developments taking place day after day, the dire security situation inside the Tindouf camps, as it has become a reflection of the various activities of organized crime, terrorism and cases of insecurity in The Sahel region, which has intensified in recent years, makes the two security dilemmas share many areas and characteristics, to the extent that each of them has become an extension of the other, which makes the Tindouf camps likely to witness an unprecedented security deterioration, due to the expansion of the severity of the security impasse in The Sahel and the failure of the United Nations and France in their mission, as well as the lackluster role of the Organization of the African Union, where terrorism returned with strength and more organization, and the level of ethnic and tribal conflicts rose.
The Tindouf camps are grounds for chaos, violence, laxity, and corruption protection.
When Algeria established the Tindouf camps in the early years of its conflict with Morocco over the Sahara, in the last half of the seventies of the last century, it carried out operations to kidnap many Sahrawi Moroccan citizens from the cities of the southern regions and the desert valley. To displace the rural population during the years 1980-1981, from the regions of northern Mauritania and the Algerian financial borders, they were forcibly transferred to the outskirts of the city of Tindouf, including many women who were kidnapped and left their husbands and children behind, and they have forcibly married again, which violates international and religious norms.
At the same time, Algeria and the “Polisario” established many prisons, including the terrible “Rashid” prison, a large center of torture and abuse in secret underground cells, which witnessed many assassinations that affected many people whose heroes are still in positions of responsibility in the “Polisario.” To this day, despite their criminal history, as well as the “Adeem Al-Rih” prison and the women’s prison known as “Al-Ruwaida prison,” where women and girls have suffered sexual assaults, torture, abortions, and trafficking in infants born as a result of rape or illegal relations with officials from the “Polisario” or Algeria’s military.
Over the years, the situation became more severe, as large numbers of unemployed youth appeared, as the Algerian authorities prevented them from working on their lands and integrating with the residents of the south, and even resorted to employing workers from distant African countries in oil and gas facilities in southern Algeria. After the cease-fire agreement in 1991, the youth of the camps, as well as the recruited elements, did not find any other way than to professionalize smuggling in all its forms and to engage in the activity of organized crime and armed and terrorist groups in the Sahel region of Africa, as the phenomenon of smuggling at the borders was the most prominent phenomenon that swept away many young people. It has evolved to include prohibited substances and commodities, including cocaine and weapons.
The manifestations of rebellion and discontent have recently escalated within the Tindouf camps. It is expected that the recruits of the separatist movement who carry arms will become more involved in smuggling and indulge in organized crime activities in northern Mali, eastern Mauritania, and southern Algeria. It is also expected that the level of trafficking in weapons and military equipment will increase through Transportation and other ways, given that the “Polisario” has lost control over weapons and ammunition stores, and its ability to monitor and control has declined, which makes it difficult for jihadist organizations and organized crime organizations in the African Sahel region to obtain large quantities of the Polisario’s military arsenal quickly.
On the internal level, the camps are experiencing widespread security chaos, with the intensification of armed tribal confrontations and the increasing power of criminal and terrorist organizations. The individual’s capital has become represented in his tribal affiliation in a way that was not witnessed in previous years, and the role of the tribe in protecting individuals and worms has increased in a tribal form within the “Polisario” leadership.
The dangers of the “Polisario” elements being involved in organized crime and terrorism
The ease of movement of the “Polisario” elements in the African Sahel and southern Algeria made it easy for them to join most terrorist organizations and coordinate with various armed groups and organized crime gangs.
As a result of large numbers of young people joining terrorist groups, the Tindouf camps have come to know the aggravation of the phenomenon of families left by the father without a breadwinner, in addition to the presence of a large number of widows of those joined who were killed in the ranks of al-Qaeda, ISIS, or other jihadist organizations in the Sahel region.
The involvement of the “Polisario” is also confirmed by the significant emergence of ISIS followers in the camps, especially after the rise of Adnan Abu al-Walid al-Sahrawi, the founder of the “Islamic State in the Greater Sahara” in the sky of terrorism, who is one of the youths of the Tindouf camps. Since the 1990s, manifestations of extremism have begun to invade the Tindouf camps after what is known as the Salafist movement has gained many followers inside the camps, and with the size of the “victories” achieved by the “Islamic State in the Greater Sahara / ISIS,” especially the ambush it carried out against the American Special Forces in Niger within a year 2017 A.D., where four American soldiers were killed. Their bodies are mutilated, and the latter has become something like hidden arms that are active in silence and work to mobilize young people, lure them and push them to join the ranks of ISIS to fight.
Moreover, what confirms the penetration of the “Islamic State in the Greater Sahara” into the Tindouf camps, the organization mourned during March of the year 2023, in a videotape, in which it showed pictures of the killing of four members of the “Polisario” in its ranks, among its prominent leaders during previous periods, and the matter relates to all From Abu al-Walid al-Sahrawi, the founder and leader of the organization, Abd al-Rahman al-Sahrawi, Issa al-Sahrawi, and Abd al-Hakim al-Sahrawi.
He held the position of the financial and logistical coordinator of the organization, while Abd al-Rahman al-Sahrawi was in charge of “issuing judgments.” The two terrorist leaders were members of the “Polisario Front” in the camps before they went to fight in the “ISIS” ranks, like others who joined the terrorist groups in the Sahel from the Tindouf camps.
In conclusion, the dire situation in the Tindouf camps, the dangerous security chaos, the blockage of horizons for young people, and everyone’s stand on the failure of the separatist project, not to mention the “polisario” ‘s loss of its ability to monitor the security of its weapons stores, and the extensive involvement of its armed recruits in smuggling activities, organized crime and terrorism in The African Sahel region requires the international community to intervene quickly to put out the fire of the security dilemma that the Algerian military regime ignited and made it a hotbed of tension that threatens international peace and security.
