Uprising In Tindouf Camps: Death Knell For The Polisario, American Enterprise Institute
Internal fissures within the Polisario-administered camps might become the death knell for a group which, in effect, is one of the last relics of both the Cold War and African liberation movements, wrote on Wednesday the American Enterprise Institute.
Within the Sahrawi community there is growing frustration with the Polisario leadership. The group’s president, Mohamed Abdelaziz, has had a stranglehold on leadership since 1976 and, true to the group’s Marxist roots, maintains a Communist bloc-style personality cult, says resident scholar, author Michael Rubin.
It added that it is an open secret throughout the region that much of the aid goes elsewhere: diplomats and other travelers report seeing assistance from the camps in markets in Mauritania, Mali, Algeria, and elsewhere in the Sahel, noting that the smuggled supplies help fund both the Polisario’s activities and, apparently, the life style of senior Polisario leaders.