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Rabat – Polisario’s self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) costs the Algerian regime $1 billion annually.
Reporting on “what the real cost of the Sahrawi Republic for the Algerian treasury,” Algerian news website Algerie Part Plus quoted an Algerian military source as saying that half of the budget goes to the defense sector of the Polisario Front.
“The documents consulted by the editorial staff indicate that the budget of the ‘Ministry of Defense of SADR amounts to nearly 497 million dollars, mainly financed by Algeria,” the source said.
The expenses of the Polisario Front amounted to over $1.3 billion last year, with Algeria’s army providing fuel, equipment, armament, and training to over 10,000 separatists.
Algerie Part Plus added that diplomatic affairs cost nearly $250 million, while the “presidential” expenditures of the self-proclaimed SADR are estimated at $8.5 million. Meanwhile, water, electricity, and gas represent an annual budget of over $53 million.
The revelation of Polisario’s colossal cost for Algeria’s taxpayers’ money comes amid a profound socio-economic crisis in the North African country, including an increase in commodities prices and protests against the dire situation of detained Hirak protesters.
Algerie Part Plus also cited thousands of millions of euros and dollars contributed by international organizations to help Sahrawis in dire conditions in the Tindouf camps.
“For 2021 alone, the European Union has committed €10 million in humanitarian funds, allowing the organization of food aid and the fight against malnutrition for Sahrawi refugee children and women,” said Algerie Part Plus’ source.
The EU also approved €1 million to support the vaccination campaign against COVID-19 in the Tindouf camps.
In addition to the EU, Sain’s Agency for International Development Cooperation and UN bodies approved aid to help improve the living conditions of Sahrawis in the camps.
In spite of all these contributions, the Tindouf camps’ populations continue to face an extreme lack of basic necessities and diseases, such as malnutrition and anemia.
In October 2021, the UN Secretary General UNSG indicated in a comprehensive report that the overall nutrition conditions in the camps have either remained unchanged or worsened over the years.
“The already fragile socio-economic situation in the camps further deteriorated due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the UN chief warned.
Some reports and activists have linked the situation to the Polisario leadership’s mismanagement of funds and embezzlement of aid meant for distressed refugees.
Tindouf’s Autonomy Support Forum (FORSATIN) released a report regarding the severe health crisis in the camps due to “smuggling” out medical equipment and supplies intended for the people in the camps.
“As soon as they arrive and are pictured, these devices evaporate as if they never existed,” FORSATIN said, citing a doctor in the camps.
The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) also released a report in 2015 exposing the embezzlement of humanitarian aid intended for refugees in the Polisario-run camps.
The report, which covers the 2003-2007 period, showed that the leadership of the separatist Polisario Front has long been directly involved in selling humanitarian aid in Mauritanian and sub-Saharan markets to buy weapons for its “independence war” against Morocco.
