Coronavirus: Sahrawis besieged by Algerian army near Tindouf 

Several Sahrawi families from the Tindouf camps found themselves, on Friday March 21, besieged by units of the Algerian army on the outskirts of the town of Tindouf.

Local sources, cited by “Hibapress” news website, said that a group of Sahrawis tried to go to the Algerian city of Tindouf to get some food and fuel, as prices soared sharply in the camps, but they were stopped, cornered and beaten by the Algerian soldiers.

During the excessive intimidation by the Algerian soldiers, a car carrying a Saharan family overturned and its occupants were beaten and mistreated, triggering the anger of a number of Saharwis who clashed with the Algerian army.

According to the same sources, more than a hundred other Sahrawis are trapped on the borders between Algeria and Mauritania. They have been prevented from returning to the Tindouf camps and are stranded in this desert area without water or food, which heralds an imminent humanitarian disaster.

Furthermore, European sources in Brussels have expressed lately EU’s serious concern over the danger of a coronavirus outbreak in the Tindouf camps, a “no-right zone” where Algeria has passed on the control of these camps to the Polisario leadership.