{"id":119509,"date":"2020-11-13T14:04:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T14:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sahara-occidental.net\/2020\/11\/the-case-for-redirecting-us-aid-for-the-polisario-run-camps-in-algeria-part-ii\/"},"modified":"2020-11-13T14:04:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T14:04:00","slug":"the-case-for-redirecting-us-aid-for-the-polisario-run-camps-in-algeria-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/2020\/11\/13\/the-case-for-redirecting-us-aid-for-the-polisario-run-camps-in-algeria-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"The case for redirecting US aid for the Polisario-run camps in Algeria (Part II)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Chronology: <\/b><\/p>\n

Documented incidents and reports linking members of the Polisario Front with AQIM, trafficking, and other illicit activities in the region. <\/span><\/p>\n

March 12, 2012 <\/p>\n

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace publishes a paper underscoring the \u201cdisturbing reality\u201d that growing numbers of disenchanted Polisario youth and fighters are being recruited by AQIM and a \u201cvast network\u201d of regional drug traffickers. The paper cites the Oct.23 kidnappings as confirmation that, \u201cthe deteriorating social and political conditions in the camps in Tindouf represent a tinderbox waiting to explode.\u201d It also notes that AQIM-Polisario member links pose \u201ca major security threat to the Maghreb and the Sahel.\u201dxvi <\/p>\n

Feb. 21, 2012 <\/p>\n

Experts testify to a United Nations Security Council special session that drug cartels and smugglers now traffic almost $1 billion in cocaine a year from Latin America into Africa\u2019s Sahel. They add that traffickers are forming alliances with AQIM and other militants, in a region that has seen an influx of Libyan weapons.  Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned leaders: \u201cinaction could be catastrophic.\u201dxvii <\/p>\n

Feb. 2, 2012 <\/p>\n

ICTS releases a study reporting that the Polisario-run camps near Tindouf, Algeria have become \u201ca recruiting ground for terrorists, traffickers, and other criminal enterprises.\u201d The study recommends that Western aid to the camps \u201cprioritize permanent resettlement\u201d for the refugees to confront this new reality. Noting expanding AQIM links with Polisario members, South American drug cartels, Boko Haram, and al-Shabaab, as well as AQIM\u2019s access to the influx of Libyan weapons in the Sahel, the study cites a 500% rise in terrorist attacks in the region since 9\/11. It argues that AQIM is seeking to extend an \u201carc of instability\u201d across Africa to exploit turbulence from the Arab Spring and destabilize the region. xviii <\/p>\n

Jan. 11, 2012 <\/p>\n

Algerian and Mauritanian security agencies reportedly break up major drug trafficking and money laundering rings. Officials say the rings are believed to be linked with groups such as al-Qaeda, which is working with the Polisario to traffic arms and drugs from Mauritania to northern neighbors. Mali reportedly also steps up efforts against AQIM and what is believed its latest offshoot, \u201cAl Qaida in Polisario Camps,\u201d said to have abducted two French nationals Nov. 2011.xix <\/p>\n

Jan. 3, 2012 <\/p>\n

Security expert Dr. J. Peter Pham, Atlantic Council, reports that economic and political reforms in Africa are \u201cthreatened by the spread of violent extremism\u201d and \u201cincreasing links\u201d between AQIM and other militants in the Sahel, recently \u201cbuoyed by the flow of arms and fighters\u201d from Libya. \u201cMore ominously, AQIM has increased its linkages with the Polisario,\u201d evident in AQIM\u2019s Oct. 23 kidnappings near Tindouf, which were \u201caided by Polisario sympathizers\u201d inside the Polisario\u2019s camps. The camps offer \u201ca ready pool of potential recruits\u201d from \u201clarge numbers of idle young fighters.\u201dxx <\/p>\n

 Dec. 27, 2011 <\/p>\n

Mali reportedly distances itself from the Polisario, accusing it of kidnapping, drug trafficking, and suspected collusion with a Sahrawi branch of al-Qaeda in the Maghreb.  A source close to the government says Mali is “angry” with the Polisario, and Malian officials say the Oct. 23 kidnapping was done in collusion with the \u2018Sahrawi link\u2019 of AQIM.xxi <\/p>\n

 Dec. 24, 2011 <\/p>\n

Mali refuses entry to “eight young Sahrawis” coming from Niger.  \u201cThey had no papers. There are laws to be respected in Mali especially when it comes to dubious propaganda,\u201d said Malian police.xxii <\/p>\n

 Dec. 17, 2011 <\/p>\n

Mali warns the Polisario, \u201cour country is not the Wild West where they can come to kill and kidnap people.\u201d Bamako will “no longer accept the violation of its territorial integrity by the Polisario Front,” says a Malian Minister. A local official adds, “everybody here knows who AQIM’s accomplices are, they even assisted in abducting the Europeans in Tindouf. His name is Omar al Sahraoui, but neither Mali, nor Algeria, nor the Polisario are doing anything to capture him.” In 2010, al Sahraoui, reportedly a Polisario veteran, was sentenced to 12 years in Mauritania for kidnapping Spanish aid workers for AQIM, according to Mauritanian court papers.  He was later released in a trade for the aid workers. xxiii <\/p>\n

Page Break<\/p>\n

Dec. 15, 2011 <\/p>\n

Members of the Polisario launch an armed incursion into northern Mali, killing one and abducting three others, ostensibly looking for the kidnappers of three Western aid workers taken Oct. 23 from the Polisario-run camps near Tindouf, Algeria.xxiv <\/p>\n

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  Chronology:  Documented incidents and reports linking members of the Polisario Front with AQIM, trafficking, and other illicit activities in the region.  March 12, 2012  The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace publishes a paper underscoring the \u201cdisturbing reality\u201d that growing numbers of disenchanted Polisario youth and fighters are being recruited by AQIM and a \u201cvast network\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2684],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-western-sahara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/xnalgrt.cluster100.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}