The Sahrawi connection
Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are.
Still from the Washington Institute video on the History of the Western Sahara conflict
So I was on Twitter roaming around and guess what I found? The Washington Institute, a prominent US think thank, did a very informative video about the history of the Western Sahara conflict. They retraced the entire story since its inception and hit every nail on the head: the Algerians backing of the Polisario? Bam. The plan that Morocco called for the Western Sahara autonomy under their sovereignty, which was considered a serious and realistic option by the US and rejected by the Polisario? Bam. The awful conditions in Tindouf? Bam.
But what really caught my attention happened towards the end of the video. The Washington Institute researcher said that the Polisario has links with multiple terror groups, which includes al-Qaeda and the Iranian proxy Hezbollah.
Well. I knew Polisario was bad, but I didn’t know how bad. These are still the same guys who are claiming to represent and protect the Sahrawis, right? The same people that are throwing their people to some of the worse terrorist groups in the world? Just checking.
This issue of connections with terror groups has been floating around in various reports that I’ve come upon, but I feel this specific aspect of the Polisario is emerging more and more in the media, including now in academic findings. The researcher in the video says that these groups have infiltrated the camps in Tindouf, and are exploiting the poor conditions and lack of governance within in order to extend their influence.
This is a pretty easy thing to believe since this is how many terrorist groups operate. They prey on individuals that are vulnerable and aimless, which is exactly the situation for the Sahrawi refugees in the camps. The Sahrawis are held in an open air prison, with nothing around but vast stretches of desert, and are under the control of a repressive group who shuts down all opposition to their rule. That sounds like a very good start for motivated recruits who are ready for anything that will both get them away from their life in the camps, and will give them a purpose. Also, given the echos I came across about the education provided under the supervision of the Polisario in Tindouf, it seems that the population is primed to radical ideology and generally to extremist ideas, since the educational material is reportedly littered with inflammatory speech.
After watching this video, I did more research and I found out that the US State Department released in June a statement designating Ousmane Illiassou Djibo as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, due to his position as a leader in the Islamic State branch in the Greater Sahara. But who else was also named in that statement? It was Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi who is originally from the Tindouf camps and has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in May 2015, coming also from a splinter group of al-Qaeda. The exact same al-Sahrawi who was cited in a Jeune Afrique article, stating that he starting his shining career in the Polisario. It explains that he, along with several other young people, left the camps of Tindouf to join north Mali on behalf of al-Qaeda, and eventually embracing the growing Islamic State movement. See, some of the youth of the Tindouf camps cannot wait to leave the camps.
But let’s not forget also about the Hezbollah connection. One of the most cited examples that I came across was the case of Amir al-Musawi, who was the cultural advisor to the Iranian embassy in Algeria. He started to work in Algiers in 1997 for what is presented by Tehran as an Iranian cultural organization. But soon enough, it became clear that his role was less about making the Iranian culture shine, and more about spreading the state’s propaganda. To make matters worse, al-Musawi went to the refugee camps in Tindouf to organize encounters between the Polisario and Hezbollah militants. Later, he was caught funneling sophisticated weapons (we’re talking surface-to-air missiles) to the Polisario, and shown the door for his effort by Algeria, who couldn’t cover up anymore for their brash guest. But the deed was done and now the Polisario had new quality friends, that they were even seen visiting in a meeting in Beirut. Sweet when a friendship works out so well, isn’t it?
And that’s just the emerging part of the iceberg. Who knows really how deep these links and connections to terrorist entities run? It seems to me that there should be much more supervision over what is happening in the camps and who has access to them. Why isn’t the UN not doing anything about that? Don’t they care about the fate of the Tindouf refugees? Don’t they care about regional stability?
