The MSP calls on Algeria to take action to stop armed clashes between drug gangs in refugee camps

The Sahrawi Movement for Peace (MSP) has called for the ‘urgent’ intervention of the Algerian authorities to ‘stop armed clashes between drug gangs in the refugee camps’ near Tindouf, in Algerian territory. 

According to an official statement by the MSP, ‘the Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf are the scene of intense fighting between drug gangs’. The organisation is demanding that the Algerian authorities put a stop to this. 

The official statement by the MSP is reproduced below: 

The MSP calls for the urgent intervention of the Algerian authorities to stop armed clashes between drug gangs in the refugee camps. 

The Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf (Algeria) are the scene of intense fighting between drug mafias. 

According to recently recorded images and eyewitness accounts, intense armed clashes with automatic weapons took place on 25 and 26 April in the Laayoune camp, just 8 kilometres northeast of the Algerian city of Tindouf. The inhabitants of the camp, mostly women and children, continue to cry out for help, calling for an end to the fighting and demanding the intervention of the authorities. 

So far, it is not known whether there have been any fatalities, although there have been injuries during the clashes, which began on the afternoon of the 25th and resumed on the morning of the 26th. 

The Polisario Front's security forces are overwhelmed and unable to stop the advance of the gangs, who are brandishing heavy automatic weapons. The MSP is therefore urgently calling on the Algerian authorities and the MINURSO peacekeepers stationed in Tindouf to intervene to stop the spiral of violence before it causes civilian casualties among the refugees. 

This is not the first time that such clashes have taken place in the Sahrawi refugee camps, where drug mafias have been swarming and fighting for control for years.