Christian Cambon, who was speaking at a press conference following a visit by a delegation of French senators to the southern provinces of the Kingdom, added that "if freedom were guaranteed in Tindouf, Ould Sidi Mouloud would have been among his family."

    "We express our solidarity with his approach," he said.

    Ould Sidi Mouloud, who is threatened for the simple reason that he had stressed the relevance of the Moroccan autonomy initiative, left on Thursday morning the territory of Mauritania for the camps of Tindouf, defying the decision of banning him from joining his family.

    In early August, he announced, in a press conference in the soutehrn city of Smara, his intention to return to the camps to defend the Moroccan autonomy proposal.