Sahara: international NGOs welcome Morocco's autonomy plan relevance, warn against terrorist thrust in Tindouf

Spanish international expert in terrorism and organized crime at the Global Security Institute José Maria Gil Garre denounced the long impasse of the Sahara issue.

The Sahel-Saharan region is today in a complex situation due to the presence of active terrorist and jihadist groups and organized crime rings, the Spanish expert noted, adding that certain elements linked to the Polisario front are in connivance with these terrorist groups.

For his part, Kevin Harrigan, a British expert in international drug trafficking, said the leaders of the Polisario front, supported by the Algerian authorities, established organized fraud by exploiting growing numbers of refugees in the Tindouf camps.

Tanya Warburg from the organization Freedom For All warned that instability in North Africa, in the Sahel and in sub-Saharan Africa is a real menace to the safety of the Sahrawi population in Tindouf.

Concerning the living conditions of the Sahrawi population in these camps, the representative of the NGO Family Protection Jane Bahaijoub denounced a "catastrophic situation", highlighting security threats in the camps which require an urgent solution to this conflict.

In the same context, Sydney S. Assor, from the British NGO Surrey Three Faiths Forum, deplored lack of freedoms in the camps, while Eric Cameron, the president of the Norwegian NGO World Action For Refugees accused the Polisario for the current impasse of the Sahara issue.

For Jean-Louis Roy, the president of the Canadian NGO International Partnership, who said he has been following the developments of the Sahara issue over 15 years, the Moroccan autonomy plan is the best way out for this conflict.