The separatism / religious extremism mixture being brewed in the Tindouf camps is a time bomb that could explode at any time. Warnings against this threat are nothing new and they resounded this week at the UN 4th Committee convening in New York.
European expert in geopolitics Aymeric Chauprade Tuesday described this alliance between the Polisario separatists and jihadists affiliated to AQIM and other extremist movements firmly rooted in the Sahel strip as “an infernal mixture”.
The European expert, drawing a parallel between the “Polisario” and the Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), noted in this regard that the “Tuareg separatists” were quickly driven out of northern Mali by radical Islamists, who “ousted them from Timbuktu, Gao and the Niger River” to regain control over the vast Sahel region.

“Who can convince us that the mindset of the people indoctrinated by the Polisario during the Cold War is still the same? By what miracle would have these people escaped the mafia and extremism networks gripping this area for more than 10 years?” wondered Aymeric Chauprade.
The Polisario’s ideology is not based on any historical or geopolitical foundation that is likely to bestow legitimacy to its project. Moreover, this artificial ideology, stemming from the Cold War, is so void that it will be swept away in an instant by fundamentalism, if the international community makes the mistake to let the situation deteriorate or to play into the Polisario’s hands, warned the European expert.
Morocco’s proposal to grant autonomy to its southern provinces, whose independence is claimed by the Polisario, is a “fair, balanced and pragmatic plan that is likely to secure stability in the sub-region,” the expert said.
Chauprade invited all those who continue to look at the Sahara issue from the prism of the Cold War to reconsider their standpoint and to take into account the current geopolitical reality in order to establish a peace respecting States’ sovereignty and specific identities and to secure geopolitical stability throughout the region.