The specialist in geopolitical strategies, Jérôme Besnard, analyzed the reasons for the diversion of humanitarian aid intended for the Tindouf camps after the last report of the World Food Program (WFP) of the United Nations, underlining the instrumentalization of the humanitarian question in the camps of Tindouf by Algeria and the use by Algiers of the Polisario card in its regional political game.
The French expert delivered a factual and down-to-earth analysis of the Sahara issue by highlighting Algeria’s plan which uses the Polisario as the main actor in a project to divide Morocco.
He is particularly interested in the latest WFP report, “strategic program for Algeria 2019/2022” which calls into question the misappropriation of humanitarian aid. These international humanitarian aids intended for the populations of the Tindouf camps, are captured by the Polisario to finance the Algerian separatist project in Morocco by using the funds generated by the resales in the purchase of weapons.
In a column published on “Omerta”, investigative and documentary media, the French expert notes that the Polisario benefits “directly” from the diversion of foodstuffs, financed in particular by the European Union, which are opportunely resold to other populations in the region.
This observation by the WFP “is not a surprise”, he notes, specifying that as early as January 2015, the European Union Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) was indeed pointing to a methodical diversion, dating back four decades. , of the international aid sent to the Sahrawi populations held in camps located in Algerian territory, as soon as the food aid arrived in the port of Oran, “thus confirming the suspicions of existing complicity within the Algerian authorities “.
“We will rightly recall the resolution of the European Parliament of April 2015 relating to the instrumentalisation of the humanitarian issue in the Tindouf camps by Algeria, in particular with regard to the misappropriation of aid financed by European taxpayers and the absence of a census of the populations concerned,” he observes.
And to recall, in the same sense, the 2021 report of the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, mentioning the diversion of part of the aid to the Sahrawi populations. The latest, UN Security Council Resolution 2654, adopted on October 27, once again calls for a census of the populations of the Tindouf camps, he notes.
According to him, the situation is quite clear for the international organizations, on the one hand Algeria turns a blind eye to the diversion of at least part of the international food aid to the populations detained by the Polisario in the camps of Tindouf, and on the other hand, it does not proceed to the quite possible census of these populations.
According to the expert, the reason is simple: the existence of the Polisario is an essential card in the regional political game of Algeria and allows it to pursue its policy of nuisance with regard to its Moroccan neighbor, whose legitimacy history and politics to administer its Saharan provinces no longer needs to be demonstrated.
He also underlined that the WFP irrefutably documents the diversion of food aid intended for a population in a situation of undernutrition, in particular among women and children.
“The United Nations is also concerned about the absence of a census of the populations concerned, which opens the door to their overestimation and subsequent misappropriation,” writes Mr. Besnard.
And to note that the UN agencies specializing in aid to refugees cannot act freely in the Algerian camps of Tindouf which are managed, again in defiance of international law, by the militia of the Polisario, an armed separatist group, to the point to form an enclave of lawlessness thanks to the complicity of the Algerian authorities.