Polisario chief accused of fuel smuggling
Head of the Algeria-backed separatist Polisario militia Brahim Ghali is once again under the spotlight following corroborated accusations of fuel smuggling.
This time it was a pro-separatists’ media Futuro Sahraui that denounced the embezzlement of fuel by Ghali and his henchmen to enrich themselves.
The fuel is monthly provided by the mentor of the separatist militia, Algeria, which is later sold by Ghali and his men, Futuro Sahraui reported.
The media cited the connivance of gangs within the Algerian regime which facilitate the smuggling of oil outside Algerian borders to be sold illegally.
The embezzlement of fuel adds to foodstuff.
Recently the World Food Programme, in its latest report on the region, deplored the malnutrition in the Tindouf camps and the fact that the Algerian regime denies it control of food distribution, hinting at the practice of embezzlement of foodstuff echoing EU alerts a decade ago.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty international have on multiple occasions decried the abject living conditions in Tindouf camps and the UN urged Algeria to allow a head-count of the camps’ population.
Algeria’s obstinacy to allow a head-count of the population of the Polisario-run camps prompted the EU to reduce aid sent to these camps in a bid to curb humanitarian aid diversion.
The decision was taken following a report by the EU anti-fraud office (OLAF) denouncing the embezzlement of humanitarian aid by the Polisario leadership and Algerian officials.
Therefore, the European Commission decided to cut aid commensurately with the estimated number of 90,000 people instead of the inflated 165,000 people put forward by the Polisario and Algeria in an attempt to sell the idea of the existence of a “Sahraoui People” with a “republic” in exile.
Polisario defectors estimate the figure of the population in the camps at around 40,000 including many non-Sahrawis.
Carrying out a head-count of the population held in Tindouf will enable international aid agencies to assess the needs of the population and will also pave the way for the camp’s dwellers to obtain refugee status. This status will grant them the right to return to their homeland Morocco or at least the right to freely choose their country of asylum, options that Algeria and the Polisario dread the most as they continue to trade in the suffering of Sahraouis living in abject conditions.
