Algeria reinforces siege around Tindouf camps

The Sahraouis held by the Polisario in the Tindouf camps brace for tough days ahead as the Algerian regime reinforces its siege, further restricting movement.

Morocco’s Assabah daily reported that Algeria is implementing a new security plan, including fortifications and fences around the camps to prevent Sahraouis from leaving.

The plan is being implemented as Algeria prepares for the launch of a railway near the camp that is planned to transport iron from the Gar Jbilet mine.

The siege would deprive the Sahraouis held against their will in the camps from sources of revenue such as smuggling, which they have been engaged in with neighboring countries.

Polisario officials however would not be affected by the move, given that they are involved in embezzlement of humanitarian aid in connivance with Algerian officials. This scandal was denounced in an EU’s anti-fraud office in a report in 2015.

In 2020, Amnesty international denounced the opaque situation in the Tindouf camps where all sorts of rights violations go unreported due to the siege.

For decades, rights groups have held Algeria accountable for the rights breaches taking place in a territory that falls in its own jurisdiction, but which it abandoned to a separatist militia that trades in the suffering of the camps’ residents.