Tindouf camps are, these last days, in a state of general alert. Two potential risks are the reason behind the exceptional measures ordered by the Algerian security services, and implemented by the separatist movement. The first risk is related to some, almost certain, information on the preparation of a revolt on the part of the inhabitants of Tindouf camps, similar to that of 1988, while the second risk concerns the return of Sahrawi mercenaries from the Libyan front, where they have been sent to fight the rebellion on the side of Colonel Mouammar Kadhafi’s supporters. The return of the Sahrawi mercenaries has been judged to be of high risk either by the Algerian security and military authorities or by the Polisario leadership, for the simple reason that these elements have returned from Libya, with lots of arms. Certain groups have even allowed themselves to indulge in bringing in their cars heavy arms such as ground-to-air missile made in Russia. Arms which were hidden in the sandhills around Tindouf camps and that the militia, while being sure of the information, could not, till now, find them.
In the first case, the Chief of the Polisario and his team members are afraid that the popular imminent revolt getting prepared in secret in the camps, even if it seemed to be moved at the beginning, by social and material claims, risks to be transformed in a new izik camp, not on the Moroccan land like the other time, but on the Algerian territory, with all the risks of outflanking that nobody can control. To thwart all these risks, the Algerian security services have told the Polisario Minister of Defense, Mohamed amine Bouhali, one of the loyal servers of the Algerian military oligarchy, to reinforce the measures of control and supervision of the camps’ inhabitants’ movements. Bouhali has thus entrusted this delicate mission to a trustworthy person M’hamed Ould Akik, who with the blessing of the Algerian services, has launched a state general alert by setting roadblocks in all the points of access to the camps. Our contacts in Tindouf talk about an unusual tension prevailing these days among the inhabitants of Tindouf camps. It is similar, they say, to the one that happened before the revolt of the Sahrawi populations in 1988 in Lahmada camps. Besides the fighters on the side of the Libyan front, who have returned back, specifies the same source, most of the suspected young people are submitted to close surveillance and are no more authorized to leave the camps. The calling out happen day and night and the armed militia have received instructions to stay in touch with their informants to avoid any surprising consequences.
