Armed clashes between the Al Fokara and Skarna tribes in the Tindouf camps sparked by drug trafficking have been taking place since the end of last week, resulting in the death of a Sahrawi with Algerian nationality, reported the Forsatin Forum on Monday and Thursday.
The Polisario was unable to contain a subsequent large-scale protest in what the separatists call the “27 February camp” in Tindouf, causing the clashes to intensify after the armed militia intervened, and tried to conceal the existence of these events by imposing a security cordon on the camp.
The Algerian authorities formally intervened inside the Tindouf camps, where they sent a force from the Algerian gendarmerie that surrounded the site, prevented a massacre by the two parties, and stopped a live-fire confrontation.
After the death of the Sahrawi, in retaliation, the wife of a former Algerian minister mobilized a large group of people, provided 15 weapons, and demanded release of his body, but the Skarna tribe instead handed him over to the authorities.
The Polisario is now accusing Morocco of having incited these clashes, an apparent tactic to divert world attention from its inability to contain the conflict in the camps it controls, a failing that has apparently shocked the population there.
Reports from the Tindouf camps indicate that the separatists have carried out a vast campaign of arrests that have sparked anger among the protesters who have accused the Polisario leadership of taking sides in the conflict.
Polisario leaders have tried to conceal the truth by making arrests and raiding the homes of those who have photos or videos showing the clashes and their heavy-handed interventions.
This is not the first time a serious security breakdown has happened in Tindouf. In early April, the Algerian Army shot a Polisario member for allegedly fuel trafficking and abducting (S.S) and 11 others individuals from the notorious Tindouf camps.
Former Polisario police chief Moustapha Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud said attacks on the population in captivity in the camps, particularly women, are frequently committed by the Polisario members.