Who truly represents the Sahrawi people?

The essential issue, now more than ever, lies not only in the status of the territory, but also in the legitimacy of the representation of the Sahrawi people. Five decades after the start of the conflict, the Sahrawis no longer form a monolithic bloc.

They now express a plurality of sensibilities, experiences and political visions that must be recognised. The Polisario Front continues to claim the title of ‘sole and legitimate representative’ of the Sahrawi people — a recognition inherited from an era of Cold War and global bipolarity.

But this claim no longer corresponds to the current reality. Numerous Sahrawi cadres, leaders and activists, formerly members of the Polisario, have decided to break with this stagnant monopoly, denouncing a leadership disconnected from the human and social realities of the camps, as well as a strategy based on the status quo, contrary to any prospect of development or prosperity for the Sahrawis.

The Sahrawi representatives elected in the provinces of the Sahara, who are integrated into national institutions, embody a certain local representativeness. Between these two extremes, the Sahrawi Movement for Peace (MSP) now stands as the expression of a moderate and realistic Sahrawi majority.

Born out of the will of cadres and former Polisario militants, the MSP brings together Sahrawi members from refugee camps, the Sahara territories, Mauritania and the diaspora. Added to this political base is tribal representation: several traditional Sahrawi chiefs have joined the MSP, reinforcing its historical and social legitimacy.

With its inclusive and peaceful approach, the MSP advocates for dialogue under the auspices of the United Nations, in favour of a pragmatic and lasting solution. The Sahrawi political reality today is pluralistic. Legitimacy cannot be confiscated or decreed: it is built through participation, openness and credibility.

The international community must recognise this diversity and extend the dialogue to all representative forces — from the MSP to local representatives, traditional authorities and civil society — so that the voice of the Sahrawi people is truly that of all its components, and not that of an organisation anchored in the past.

In short, the MSP represents a path that should not be ignored: that of a Sahrawi generation that wants to replace stagnation with peace and prolonged suffering with shared prosperity.