Sahraouis flee Polisario-run camps to Mauritania due to coronavirus

The Sahraouis held in inhuman conditions in the Poliairo-run camp with Algeria’s blessings are fleeing en masse to Mauritania over fears of the coronavirus outbreak, Mauritanian media reported.

A convoy of 1,500 cars left the camps to northern Mauritanian localities of Tiris Zemmour and Adrar, Mauritanian media outlets reported.

The media echoed concerns of the Mauritanian authorities with the increase in the arrival of escapees from the Polisario-administered camps.

Mauritanian authorities are struggling to return some of the Sahraouis on the borders before they enter their territories, different Mauritanian media said.

Morocco’s Ahdath Maghribia said this “exodus” takes place amid a brutal crackdown on political dissent in the camps.

Recently, a movement was created challenging the Polisairo’s obsolete stands and ideology and calling for openness to a political and mutually acceptable solution to the Sahara conflict, breaking away with the stands of the Polisario’s Algerian host and sponsor.

The unbearable living conditions imposed on the population held against their will have also pushed young disenchanted Sahraouis to flee the camps at the risk of being shot.

Any attempt to flee the harsh living conditions prevailing in the Tindouf camps may lead to death including via summary executions. The Algerian army has in the past also been involved in shooting dead Sahraouis as they attempted to leave the Polisario-administered Tindouf camps.

The car convoy that managed to leave the camps pretended that they were heading to the buffer area, which the Polisario claims as liberated territory, but they drove southward to Mauritania, grabbing a chance of no return to the yoke of the separatists in Tindouf.

In Leaked letters last year, Polisario representatives in Cuba voiced concern at the increasing number of young graduates who decided never to return to the Tindouf inferno.

International rights watchdogs, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have in multiple reports drew attention to the plight of the population held against their will in Tindouf where the Algerian state has relegated the destiny of thousands of Sahraouis to the mercy of a separatist militia that trades in their suffering.

From humanitarian aid embezzlement by the Polisario officials to slavery and forced disappearances in the Tindouf camps, Algeria has abdicated its responsibilities and forsaken a civilian population to the mercy of a separatist militia.

The UN Security Council has repeatedly called on Algeria to uphold its responsibility and allow a census of the population held in the camps. But all the calls fell in deaf ears.