Tindouf: Sahrawi youth in critical condition

In recent days, there have been several tumultuous events in the Tindouf camps, which do not make them any less serious because they are commonplace. To the news of the machine-gunning of several young gold diggers by the Algerian army, in what was the second attack in recent months, it should be added the consecutive assault by individuals on the police post in the Wilaya of Smara, wounding the officers, with the aim of freeing a member of their tribal family who had previously been arrested for drug trafficking. All this with the aggravating circumstance that the detainee is a relative of the Polisario Minister of the Interior, Mustafa Mohamed Ali Sidi Bachir, who at this stage has not yet resigned.

Once again, these camps in the inhospitable desert of the Algerian hamada are once again in the news, and not for reasons worthy of satisfaction, but for the episodes of continuous anxiety and unrest that both the disturbances of public order and criminal actions in general provoke, both cases with young people as protagonists. Either because of the insecurity suffered by some of these young people, as in the first case, or because of the growing problem of drug trafficking in the area, in the second.

Something which, on the other hand, is not surprising given the circumstances in which these young people live and work in the camps, with the only subsistence being international aid, without any aspirations for the future to hold on to. A society subjected to existential resignation, with no hope for the future and with a youth that, once submerged in absolute hopelessness, ends up turning with the passage of time and the weariness of eternal waiting into non-conformism, rebellion and the search for a possibility of improvement in their modus vivendi of what is ultimately a life project condemned to failure.

The irruption of new technologies and forms of communication has a lot to do with the latter, in a globalised society from which the camps cannot be alienated, no matter how much they try to impose any kind of censorship. In this sense, the use of smartphones, social networks and other similar tools have led to the arrival of an alternative vision to the reduced and oppressive world to which they are accustomed. A vision that, although in the first instance shows them the life they could have, turns into a mirage of false hopes that inevitably ends up producing discouragement, subjugated in the land of nothingness, which finally ends in disobedience, giving rise to situations such as those that have recently occurred in the legitimate search for a better future.

From these false hopes suffered and endured by most of the exiled population in the camps, the privileged few who, from the seat of power they have held hostage for decades, pervert the meaning of governing, making a way of life out of perks, clientelism and corruption, are usually spared. They are the ruling class who, through innumerable concessions granted through the abuse of power, as well as the prolonged permanence of these concessions, have managed to resolve their present, their future and that of their families.

These attitudes are particularly ruthless when they are carried out in order to increase one's own wealth and come from the suffering of others. Particularly when they do so by using humanitarian aid, which is so necessary for a population overflowing with hardship and patience. All this with the support and connivance of a nation, Algeria, which supports them purely out of geopolitical and economic interest within the international concert.

The latest of the issues to be widely reported was the death of the head of the Polisario Front's National Guard, Adaj el Bendir, while on patrol in an area controlled by the Moroccan army, near Tifariti. In Morocco, the news has not been disseminated by official sources, but through the official Polisario media. The position of the deceased would be equivalent to that held in Spain by a Director-General of the Guardia Civil, and although it was reported that he was accompanied by Brahim Ghali in the aforementioned incursion, it is false information, since the latter has long been unaccounted for, as has his leadership in turbulent times such as these.

This situation has further convulsed the atmosphere in Tindouf, whose leaders are trying to glorify the death of this leader as having died "on the field of honour", thus trying to instil morale in the young soldiers so that they do not shy away from the front line. However, as mentioned above, they are more concerned with their own problems, in the absence of solutions provided over the years, and the lack of interest shown towards them.

In the face of such bluster and innocuous challenges to maintain the state of "war" against Morocco, the Polisario has forgotten that it is no longer 1975, and that no matter how much they try to shake up international opinion with these continuous episodes, all they will achieve is to push a new generation of young people to die if the situation worsens. In Morocco and the West, the war is rejected, as is the UN, and this will become clear on April 21, when the Security Council will have to decide whether to extend the mandate of its mission in the Sahara.

This whole situation has a notable influence on the Canary Islands, whose population is intimately linked to the Saharawi people, due to their former presence in the territory when it was under Spanish administration, and to the fact that almost all of these islands are home to numerous Saharawi families who settled there after Spain's departure from the colony.                

Among them are many of their young people, who flee their camps as best they can, a perfect breeding ground for an increase in delinquency due to the aforementioned reasons. They seek things their leaders deny them because they constantly refuse to explore other solutions. This is something that should be taken into account by international organisations in their oft-repeated commitment to a just, lasting and mutually agreed solution for the parties involved. This is undoubtedly the solution that will bring the Sahrawi youth out of the ostracism in which they live.