Polisario armed men clash with Algerian army in Tindouf over drug trafficking

Has the Algerian army lost control of the Polisario armed men? That is what many reports concluded following violent clashes last week between disenchanted Polisario youth involved in drug trafficking and the Algerian army.

A tightening of the siege imposed by the Algerian army on the camps triggered armed clashes between members of the Polisario engaging in drug trafficking, leaving an undocumented number of injuries and deaths.

Algeria has for decades abandoned thousands of Sahrawis to the merci of the Polisario separatist militias, which have been trading in the suffering of civilians in the camps, embezzling aid and turning a blind eye to the recruitment by drug traffickers and extremist groups of the youth there.

As Algeria’s subsidies policy towards the camps weaken, it turned to tightening the siege around the camps, cracking down on the freedom of movement to keep the Sahrawis in dire conditions within the camps. This has over the past month led to clashes with the camps’ population.

Last week’s riots were the most violent as Sahrawi students also attacked the Algerian army, whom they accused of holding them hostage.

The renewed clashes add to the repetitive riots within the camps in protest over Polisario leadership corruption.

The Polisario has been accused by the EU anti-fraud agency OLAF of embezzling aid. To do so the Polisario has prevented the Sahrawis from leaving the camps, while inflating figures of the camps’ population.

Morocco and the UN have urged the Algerian authorities to allow the census and registration of the camps’ population. Algeria and the Polisario leaders continue to reject conducting a headcount to keep the Sahrawis in Tindouf as political pawns.