Analysts: Algeria prepares ground for ‘statelet’ in Tindouf by elevating Polisario leader

Algeria’s repeated portrayal of Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali as a visiting head of state is part of a broader effort to normalize the idea of a breakaway entity on Algerian soil, analysts say.

Each time Ghali is received by senior Algerian officials, state media broadcast the events as though he were arriving from abroad, despite his reported residence in Algiers and the Polisario’s control of camps in Tindouf, southwestern Algeria. Critics call it a staged performance meant to legitimize the separatist movement.

Anouar Malek, an Algerian writer and activist based in Paris, told Hespress AR that the government is “preparing Algerians psychologically” for a proposal to formalize a Polisario-run entity in Tindouf.

“The military regime realized it lost the Sahara issue to Morocco,” he said. “Showing Ghali as a foreign president is just the beginning of selling this idea to the public and the international community.”

Malek argued that such a move would be aimed at preventing the Polisario from being listed as a terrorist group. He pointed to remarks by Abdelkader Bengrina, head of the National Construction Movement and a former minister, who recently suggested Algeria shares a border with Tindouf, a statement Malek described as no slip of the tongue, but a deliberate message from the regime.

Mohamed Atif, professor of international relations at Chouaib Doukkali University in El Jadida, said Algeria’s official narrative is a “transparent attempt” to create a political fiction. “Everyone knows the Polisario is a proxy living off Algerian support,” he said. “By treating its leader like a president, Algeria only highlights itself as a direct party in the conflict, not a mediator.”

Atif added that the approach undermines Algeria’s sovereignty. “Allowing an armed group to act like a state within your borders is an implicit admission that Tindouf has slipped outside national control,” he said.

Both analysts described the Polisario as a failed entity lacking geography, institutions or economy, sustained mainly by Algerian backing. They argued Algeria’s strategy risks prolonging a “manufactured conflict” while Morocco consolidates international recognition of its sovereignty over the Sahara.