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Taking the floor, Giulia Pace, member of Il Cenacolo NGO, noted that a bill was recently introduced to the U.S. House of Representative aiming to designate the “polisario” as a foreign terrorist organization.
This bipartisan initiative is a sign that the danger posed by this separatist movement is “no longer a matter of political debate but of urgent security concern,” Pace said, underlining that it has become clear that the “polisario” is a “destabilizing proxy force operating on behalf of those who thrive on regional turmoil.”
Pace cited the example of Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, member of the “polisario” who founded the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), then set up the first nucleus of the so-called “Islamic State in the Greater Sahara,” noting that this case was “the tree that concealed the forest,” since many “polisario” members have “crossed the threshold into terrorism.”
The petitioner underlined that the bill presented in the U.S. Congress is the recognition that the “polisario” has become “inseparable from the networks of terrorism and trafficking that menace the Sahara and the Sahel.”
For his part, Rwandan geopolitics expert Ismael Buchanan asserted that the separatist entity maintains “notorious links” with terrorist organizations operating in the Sahel and Sahara region.
“No peace or security can be achieved in Africa until the ‘polisario’ is designated a terrorist organization,” he affirmed, warning that the armed separatist entity represents a “serious threat” to peace and security in Africa and beyond.
Speaking along the same lines, chair of the Moroccan-Palestinian Friendship Association, Mohamed Ziad Al Jaabari, cautioned against the “complicity” between separatist movements, terrorist groups, and organized crime networks in the Sahel region, noting the clear “complementary” that exists between these three entities.
Explaining this relationship, the petitioner noted that while terrorist groups benefit from resources -particularly funds and weapons- provided by organized crime networks, separatist movements, taking advantage of porous borders and the lack of an effective security strategy, attempt to carry out their nefarious ambitions.
In this regard, Al Jaabari emphasized that the Tindouf camps, controlled by the “polisario” separatists in southwestern Algeria, constitute one of the main smuggling routes in Africa, which benefits terrorist and criminal networks alike.
The petitioner also warned of the growing risk of radicalization among the youth in these camps, in the backdrop of the lack of employment opportunities and the deplorable living conditions imposed by the armed militia’s leaders.
Speaking on the same occasion, international human rights law expert Mehmood Ur Rehman Anwar highlighted the growing threat that separatist movements pose to peace, sovereignty, and the protection of fundamental rights in Africa.
Their collusion with terrorist organisations, traffickers, and organised crime “generates lawless zones where civilians suffer displacement, violence, and the denial of basic Human rights”, Anwar said.
Highlighting the “polisario”‘s connection to extremist and criminal networks in the Sahel, the international expert noted that such alliances “not only create insecurity in a fragile region, but they also threaten collective efforts undertaken by African States and the international community to combat terrorism and organised crime.”
Connections between separatism and terrorism are only made possible by “the blessing, or even the interference” of Algeria, a country trying to impose its hegemonic agenda on the region, concluded the president of the Sahel Institute for Research and Analysis for Conflict Transformation, Souleymane Satigui Sidibe.
Source: map
