The Polisario Front separatist movement is heavily involved with criminal and terrorist organizations active in the Sahel region, Sahel expert and researcher at the Center for Global Studies at the International University of Rabat (UIR), Beatriz Mesa, said, accusing Algeria of cooperating with these criminal organizations.
The Polisario Front separatist movement is “one of the main actors contributing to the criminal economy in the Sahel region,” Mesa told Barlamane Today on the sidelines of the 8th African Peace and Security Annual Conference (APSACO), held on June 10-11 in Rabat.
“We have seen what happened with the kidnappings in the refugee camps, which is a solid indicator that [the Polisario is] a criminal network,” she stressed.
In this regard, the Sahel expert underscored the involvement of Algeria in this criminal activity in the region. “It is evident that when we talk about the Sahel and the Polisario, we are talking about Algeria and non-state actors that are cooperating with criminals.”
Mesa noted that the biggest threats in the Sahel region are organized crime, political violence, and terrorism, and it is important to link these threats to the criminal economy and terrorism because “territorial control is their final goal.”
The armed groups act like a “parallel State,” financing themselves and representing a threat to the stability of States and neighboring regions.
To face this situation, the Sahel expert stressed the importance of peace mediation, notably by locals. “The failure of most of the initiatives to promote peace in the Sahel region were due to the exclusion of locals from the negotiation table”, she pointed out.
To locals, the foreign mediators lack credibility, and they prefer to have mediators who are familiar with their culture and religious values. For these reasons, it is very important today to revisit the notion of mediation, she concluded.