What are the Polisario militia doing in the Malian quagmire?
Hundreds of Polisario militiamen are bogged down in the quagmire of Mali, where they were drawn by Algerian terrorists who became emirs of Al Qaeda franchises and other terrorist groups in the Sahel strip and sub –Saharan Africa.
According to the testimony of a former hostage of AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) headed by Algerian emir Abdelmalek Droukdel, alias Abu Musab Abdelwadoud, many Sahrawis, lured by enticing enrollment bonuses, have deserted the Polisario-run Tindouf camps and joined the Malian front.
Once they enroll in the ranks of terrorist groups such as AQIM, MUJAO, Ansar Edine, MNLA, Boko Haram and Jund Al Caliphate, the latest on the list of terrorist groups, the Polisario militiamen can no longer escape from this trap.
When they are not engaged in armed operations, these elements of the Polisario, who are experienced in guerilla techniques and who know the Sahara desert, are used as guides for drug traffickers transiting through the region, says the former hostage adding that the traffickers pay to the leaders of the terrorist groups high right-of-way fees.
Several experts and Think Tanks have already documented in various reports the existence of close links between the Polisario and many subversive organizations in Latin America, including Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). The presence of Polisario militiamen in the ranks of the terrorist groups swarming in the Sahel and West Africa, has also been repeatedly documented.
The latest such evidence was revealed on the occasion of the recent release of the French hostage, Serge Lazarevic, who was held by AQIM in northern Mali. In exchange for the hostage release, Malian authorities were asked to free four dangerous terrorists including a Polisario member named Habib Ould Mahouloud.
According to Malian security sources, Habib Ould Mahouloud was part of a contingent of about 500 to 700 terrorists, conveyed in 2012 from the Tindouf camps to Northern Mali. Nevertheless these figures need to be verified, because the Tindouf fugitives usually travel individually or in small groups to go unnoticed.