Child murder in sahrawi camps sparks crisis, security concerns

  The Sahrawi camps were shaken two days ago following the murder of a child in the El- Güera district in Aousserd camp, after being brutally stabbed by a group of perpetrators.

According to information obtained by Hespress from an informed source, the crime occurred following a verbal argument between the victim and a group of his peers inside one of the stalls in the aforementioned camp.

The argument ended with the victim severely stabbed in the head, abdomen, and kidneys, causing him to fall into a pool of blood before his body was found the next morning, while the perpetrators fled.

Hespress’s source mentioned that “five of the perpetrators have been identified, while three others are still on the run.”

The Forum of Tindouf autonomy plan supporters, known as ” Forsatin,” said that “The murdered child belongs to the Lebihat tribe,” noting that “accusations point to the armed gangs that have been invading the camps for a while, who engage in live ammo fights. They likely employ young children in their suspicious operations, such as distributing drugs, informing, spying… Which corrupted the children, kept them out of school, and made them mere tools used by gangs, and the majority of them became addicts.”

The same forum explained that “crimes in the camps have escalated to an intolerable level. After thieving the properties of residents, robbing their tents, and recruiting young people in international smuggling. Now it is children who are becoming victims of the Polisario’s failure to secure the camps, and their deliberate disregard of criminal networks along with their suspicious activities, before the camps turn into a battleground for war and human trafficking and an area where violence, destruction, and revenge prevail.”

Security failure

Responding to the issue, Mustapha Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud, a Sahrawi activist and a former military official in the Polisario, said “The camp where the incident occurred is one of the smallest ones. Thus, securing it is not that hard,” pointing out that “this crime is only the tip of the iceberg. Incidents have been recurring for a while, and what happened cannot be separated from the general security situation in Tindouf camps, which is worsening day by day.”

In a statement to Hespress, Ould Sidi Mouloud explained that “this new security situation reveals the decrease of authority and influence of the Polisario Front, which Algeria has entrusted to manage the camps,” noting that “according to some sources, the camps have become a market for psychedelic drugs and narcotics, and that is endangering the security of the Sahrawi community.”

The former military official in the Polisario Front concluded that “the situation inside the camps does not bode well and is prone to explode at any moment, especially given the recurrence of incidents of exchange of fire among the gangs operating in this area, along with the emergence of new unfamiliar criminal patterns and behaviors due to the weakness of the judicial control authority of the Polisario, and its decreased ability to ensure the security of lives and properties.”

International intervention

On the other hand, Ramadan Messaoud, president of the Sahrawi Association for Human Rights Defense in Madrid, said in a statement to Hespress, “These incidents that often occur in Tindouf camps are the result of the security deterioration that has been ongoing for years, and the growing activities of criminal gangs led by some separatist leaders, and the weakness of the Polisario in maintaining security.”

Messaoud added that “the camps have witnessed many incidents in the past years, revealing the fragile security situation in Tindouf, and the escalating activities of drug and fuel smuggling gangs, in collusion with Polisario leaders who turn a blind eye to these criminal activities, that have claimed the lives of many Sahrawis, youth and children.” He also pointed out that “human rights associations have long raised the alarm and alerted the international community to the gravity of this situation regarding the security and safety of Sahrawis.”

The president of the Sahrawi Association for Human Rights Defense in Madrid called on the international community and humanitarian organizations to “intervene to protect the inhabitants of the camps, particularly children, from the consequences of this state of security deterioration,” holding the Algerian state responsible for this situation as it hosts the Polisario on its territory, and these crimes occur on its territory without any interventions.

This piece was translated from Hespress AR by Wissal Mellal