Polisario Represses Women Protesters in Tindouf

Rabat – Videos have gone viral of Polisario militias’ violent intervention against women protesters in Tindouf camps, Algeria.

The videos show dozens of Polisario members in military uniforms attacking women protesters and preventing them from exercising their right to assembly in Rabouni, Algeria.

The attacks took place amid a sit-in organized by the family of a Polisario who lost his vision due to “negligence.”

Mohamed Lamine Michan, a Polisario soldier, suffered loss of vision after the separatist group sent him along with other inexperienced young people to attack Morocco’s defense belt last year.

Polisario declared war against Morocco in November 2020. The move followed Morocco’s peaceful intervention on November 13 to end a three-week Polisario blockade in Guerguerat, near the Mauritanian-Moroccan borders.

The blockade disrupted both civil and commercial traffic, causing a shortage of fruits and vegetables in Mauritania.

Following Morocco’s peaceful intervention to remove the blockade, Polisario launched a “war” that several media outlets supporting the separatist group described as a bloodshed.

Despite repeated UN denials of Polisario’s claims of a “bloody war” with Morocco in the aftermath of the Guerguerat crisis, Algeria’s state agency continued to spread reports that several members of the Moroccan army were killed during hostilities.

Some of the reports suggest that Morocco used drones to suspend Polisario’s hostile maneuvers in the defense belt or berm. According to one such report, a drone attack caused Michan’s injuries.

As a result of negligence from the Polisario Front, Michan’s injury turned into permanent damage, ultimately causing him to lose his vision.

After sending him to participate in attacks on Morocco’s defense wall in violation of the UN ceasefire, the Polisario Front refused to pay for Michan’s hospitalization in Europe.

In a letter, Michan’s family complained about repression, negligence, and false promises by the Polisario leadership.

According to the letter, Michan’s only hope for recovery is to be sent to Europe for a surgery.

The letter said that the Polisario Front made “fake promises” and used the COVID-19 crisis to justify the delay in sending Michan abroad for surgery.

“Today is the second of August; eleven months and five days have passed since the return of Michan, a wounded man from the field,” the family wrote in the letter.

The family condemned the exploitation Polisario regularly carries out against youth in Tindouf camps.

The family said that Michan’s suffering is not only due to his wounds and the loss of sight, but also to the “pain of neglect” and “lies. “

Activists have long warned against the exploitation of youth and children in Tindouf camps.

Mustafa Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud, a former senior Polisario member, shared photos documenting child exploitation in the separatist group’s “military”

Morocco has consistently warned of Polisario’s use of child soldiers, stressing the need to hold accountable the countries that allow the use of children in armed conflicts.

“States that shelter, arm, finance, and train armed groups which recruit children bear the same criminal responsibility as these groups and must be held accountable by the international community,” Morocco’s UN representative, Omar Hilale, said in February during a UN meeting on Red Hand Day, the International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers.