Many Sahrawis have been condemning malnutrition in Tindouf camps and were surprised to find popular aid products on display in Algerian shops.
Rabat – The Polisario Front is facing another corruption scandal. The president of the Canary Sahrawi Forum Miguel Angel Ortiz wrote an opinion piece published by La Provincia to condemn what he called Polisario’s embezzlement of aid and corruption.
In the publication, the author said that a new scandal broke within the Tindouf camps following the misappropriation of some €2.5 million of humanitarian aid from the international community for Sahrawis living in Tindouf camps.
Ortiz further explained that a leader of the separatist group addressed the scandal and asked the front to provide explanations.
The opinion piece said that the Polisario Front was unable to justify the expenses related to the grants, “which shows how corruption is deeply-rooted among the separatists.”
“Once again, the Polisario commits this kind of indecent practices and dishonest behavior towards the population it claims to represent and the international community which donates every year, in good faith, huge amounts of money that are managed in a suspicious way by the polisario’s leaders,” wrote the president of the Canary Sahrawi Forum.
Ortiz also recalled that Spain’s autonomous communities provide several million of euros of humanitarian aid in form of foodstuffs and materials sent to the camps by official bodies and international NGOs.
Ortiz recalled also the European Union’s Anti-Fraud Office report published in recent years, which exposed and denounced Polisario’s embezzlements of humanitarian aid.
In his 2018 report on Western Sahara, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed the situation in the Tindouf camps.
Guterres spoke further about the “the lack of progress in the political process,” as well as “persistent difficulties, such as malnutrition, brought about by the steady reductions in humanitarian aid.”
In the sixth section of the report, the UN chief warned that “malnutrition and anaemia prevalence remained public health concerns.”
