Moroccan expert urges militia be labelled a terrorist group

In the Western Sahara, a militia group named the Polisario Front has waged a decades-long fight for independence. A Moroccan expert, however, better defines their campaign as terrorism.

According to the government friendly news outlet Hespress on August 31st, Moroccan security expert Hassan Ramo argued the Polisario Front’s actions since the 1970s meet definitions of terrorism set by the UN, the US, and several European countries.

“These include violent acts of terrorist nature, the use of explosives and heavy weapons, kidnappings, and targeting of civilians,” Ramo said in a statement.

The Polisario Front have apparently been responsible for a multitude of controversial operations. Most notably, the abduction of Spanish and Italian nationals in 2011, multiple kidnappings of Moroccans, and naval attacks near Morocco and Spain’s Canary Islands, which are said to have left over 281 Spanish and Portuguese fishermen dead.

The more pressing concern for Ramo centres in the militias ties to extremist groups currently causing trouble in the Sahel. The source claims they have links with the likes of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, so much so Mali apparently labelled the Polisario Front terrorists themselves.

Ramo believes the group’s use of violence for political gain and broader separatist goals constitutes them as a terrorist organisation, especially under legal benchmarks used by many states globally.

He fears that while these frameworks protect European nations and their civilians, countries in North Africa and the Sahel remain vulnerable.

The Western Sahara has been a long contentious topic in North African politics, a region seemingly in struggle for identity. While Morocco gets the backing of international superpowers in their claim over the region, the natives stand in protest Morocco’s lack of regard for human rights.

As Maghrebi reported, even officials in the UN are growing concerned about the human rights situation in the Western Sahara, claiming Swahiri activists are faced with physical assault and imprisonment on unfair grounds.

Hespress, Maghrebi.org