Defection of Polisario chief propagandist widens cracks in separatist edifice

Polisario representative in the EU Oubi Bouchraya Bachir has jumped from the sinking ship of the Polisario confirming reports of infighting between the leaders of the Algeria-run separatist group.

Bouchraya has orchestrated Polisario propaganda in EU capitals and took part in TV shows defending the Polisario and its paymaster Algeria following the recent inroads made by Morocco in defense of its sovereignty on the Sahara.

The defection of Bouchraya stirred a heated debate among the Polisario senior officials with some taking the defense of Bouchraya against the separatist group’s chief Brahim Ghali.

Polisario leader Mohamed Lamine Dadi accused Ghali, known as Benbattouch, of forcing Bouchraya to resign so that he can tighten his grip on the camps and monopolize contact with the separatist mentor, Algerian army.

Like other Polisario leaders, Bouchraya is accused of corruption including the diversion of 1.5 million dollars offered by South Africa to build pitches in Tindouf camps.

Protests are commonplace in the Tindouf camps where uprisings are often violently suppressed. In 2004, Khat Achahid was established as an opposition movement to the Polisario leadership.

The siege on Tindouf population highlights the fear by Algerian authorities and their Polisario puppets of seeing an exodus of the youth to Morocco, which regularly announces defections of armed men from the separatist militias.

The Algerian army has on multiple occasions fired at any Sahrawi attempting to leave the camps. In March 2018, Algerian soldiers fired without warning at a car outside the Tindouf camps, killing Kari Mohamed Ali El Ouali and his friend Ahmed Lebouiya Sahraoui.