Executive Summary:

Western Sahara remains an unresolved decolonization conflict, with Morocco controlling most of the territory since 1975 and the UN continuing to list it as a “non-self-governing” region.
Brahim Ghali’s leadership of the Algeria-backed Polisario Front has been marked by authoritarianism, corruption, and repression, leaving the movement stagnant and internally divided.
Despite framing its struggle in anti-colonial terms, the Polisario has failed to attract meaningful support from global leftist or decolonial movements—underscoring its ideological isolation as Morocco gains diplomatic strength through Western and Israeli backing.

The Polisario (Spanish: Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro) was formed in 1973 to battle Spanish colonial occupation of the Western Sahara region with Algerian assistance. The region is the traditional home of largely nomadic Berber and Arab tribes. Very limited development only began in the 1950s and 1960s when the exploitation of large phosphate deposits was added to offshore fishing as a dependable source of revenue. As part of a global shift to decolonization, Spain abandoned most of its African possessions in the 1970s, but rather than allow Western Sahara’s small population the opportunity of self-determination, Spanish authority was instead transferred to neighboring Morocco and Mauritania. This sparked the ongoing struggle of the Polisario independence movement, which since 2016 has been led by a long-time movement leader and former colonial soldier, Brahim Ghali (Arabic: ابراهيم غالي). While Mauritania has relinquished its claims to the Western Sahara, Rabat claims the region is a historic part of the Royal Kingdom of Morocco. The half-million-strong Royal Moroccan Armed Forces (RMAF) is vastly more powerful than the 20,000 to 30,000 fighters of the Polisario’s armed wing, the Sahrawi People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), operating under Ghali’s leadership. While Morocco has access to modern American and Chinese arms and equipment, the SPLA is reduced to firing outdated Soviet artillery and rockets obtained from Algeria and Libya at Moroccan positions. This inability to apply military pressure on Morocco contributes to the political inertia that prevents a resolution to the conflict in which Ghali has been involved throughout his career. Early Career – 1960s Ghali was born August 19, 1949 in Smara (Arabic: السمارة, Spanish: Esmara) during the Spanish colonial occupation, which lasted from 1884 to 1976. Like many members of the dominant Reguibat (Arabic: الرقيبات) tribe, Ghali became a soldier in the late 1960s in the Tropas Nómadas del Sahara, a camel-mounted colonial regiment with some mechanized units composed largely of Saharan tribesmen and Spanish officers. The Tropas Nómadas were reliable enforcers of colonial rule until the emergence of the Sahrawi independence movement in the mid-1970s. Mutinies erupted in 1975, with Spanish personnel taken prisoner by their native comrades-in-arms. Other Sahrawi soldiers, like Ghali, left to help train fighters for the nascent independence movement. Now in opposition to the Spanish, Ghali helped form the Movement for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Wadi el Dhahab, a forerunner of the Polisario Front. Zemla Intifada – 1970 Ghali went on to help found the Organización del Ejército de Liberación (from Spanish: “Organization of the Liberation Army,” OEL) in 1969 and later became a leader of the Organización de Vanguardia para la Liberación Saharaui (OVLS). A public demonstration was held in June 1970 in the Zemla (Arabic: الزملة) district of Laayoune (Arabic: العيون, Western Sahara’s most populous city), which proved to be a turning point for the movement. Protesters publicly read a petition to the Spanish governor calling for an end to Spanish rule. Police moved in to arrest the ringleaders, mostly members of the Harakat Tahrir (Arabic: حركة تحرير, “Liberation Movement”) led by Muhammad Bassiri (Arabic: محمد سيدي ابراهيم سيدي مبارك بصير; محمد بصيري), but were repelled by stone-throwing. Troops of the notoriously brutal Spanish Legion were called in to end the demonstration, which they did by opening fire, killing as many as 11 protesters. Mass arrests and deportations followed; Bassiri disappeared after being detained by the Legionnaires (Sahara Press Service, June 17, 2024). [1] Ghali, a relative of Bassiri, was detained in the aftermath of what came to be known as the Zemla Intifada. After a year in the Bir Nazarán prison, Ghali returned to political organizing but was re-arrested and detained for a further three months. [2] Formation of Polisario Front – 1973 The Harakat Tahrir was replaced on May 10, 1973 by the formation of the Polisario Front, with Brahim Ghali serving as its first secretary general. Ghali took part in the Front’s first military operation, the El-Khanga Raid, in which eight of the movement’s desert fighters struck a Spanish military outpost on May 20, 1973, seizing much-needed arms and munitions from 12 members of the Tropas Nómadas. The operation was led by El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed (Arabic: الوالي مصطفى السيد), who was briefly captured by loyalist troops before escaping when Ghali and his men overran the post and left their bound captives to be rescued by a Spanish patrol. [3] In 1974, Ghali stepped aside as Polisario secretary general to take command of the Sahrawi People’s Liberation Army (Arabic: جيش التحرير الشعبي الصحراوي, Spanish: Ejército de Liberación Popular Saharaui), the movement’s military wing. With Spain under pressure to decolonize its last overseas territories, it devised the November 14, 1975 Madrid Accords, under which Spain would divide the Western Sahara and pass control to Morocco and Mauritania, despite a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that long-standing historical ties did not establish the sovereignty of these nations over the Western Sahara (ICJ, October 16, 1975). The Sahrawis were not consulted, leading to the outbreak of armed resistance to the new authorities. Known as the Western Sahara War, the armed conflict between the Polisario and Mauritania would last until 1979, at which point Mauritania abandoned its claims, and continued with Morocco until a 1991 ceasefire. SADR Government – 1976 Under the Polisario’s direction, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) was established on February 27, 1976 as the political manifestation of the Sahrawi independence movement. Mustapha Sayed became its first president, but the insistence of this popular and charismatic figure on personally leading military raids led to his death in combat in June 1976. Ghali served as SADR Defense Minister from March 1976 to 1989, during which time he was involved in direct negotiations with King Hassan II of Morocco, while also taking strict measures to quell internal dissent from Sahrawis who opposed a settlement ending in anything less than complete independence, or who accused Polisario leaders of benefiting personally from aid distribution (TV5monde, January 26, 2023). In 1984, the SADR was admitted to the African Union amid clashes between Moroccan and Sahrawi forces, prompting Morocco to quit the organization. Rabat had its own plan – the construction between 1980 and 1987 of a 1700-mile-long wall of fortified sand berms dividing Western Sahara into Morocco’s “Southern Provinces” (over 80% of the Western Sahara) and the Polisario-controlled “Free Zone.” Polisario was compelled to shift its military and administrative headquarters across the border to the Algerian desert town of Tindouf (Arabic: تندوف), which has been the site of Sahrawi refugee camps since the mid-1970s. Nonetheless, Ghali referred to the period of 1986 to 1989 as one where “we fought battles that gave great results in the recovery of weapons and the capture of prisoners” (Le Monde, January 23, 2023). Ceasefire: 1991 A UN-sponsored ceasefire was implemented in 1991, leaving most of Western Sahara in Moroccan hands, including most of its resources – phosphates, iron ore, and the fishing waters off the region’s Atlantic coast. A UN force, the UN Mission for the Organization of a Referendum in Western Sahara (Spanish: Misión de las Naciones Unidas para la Organización de un Referéndum en el Sáhara Occidental, MINURSO), was established to oversee the ceasefire and a referendum on self-determination (Sahara Press Service, October 12, 2023). Moroccan refusal to allow independence as a poll option rather than autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty has prevented a vote from being held to this day. Polisario Representative in Madrid: 1999–2008 Brahim Ghali became the Polisario Front’s representative in Madrid in 1999, where he was dogged by allegations of crimes against humanity, torture, and genocide involving the repression of Sahrawi dissidents during his time as Defense Minister in the Polisario. In 2007, the Sahrawi Association for the Defense of Human Rights (Spanish: Asociación Saharaui para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos, ASADEDH) filed a genocide lawsuit in Spain’s National Court against Brahim Ghali, 27 other Polisario members, and a number of Algerian military personnel active in Tindouf. The Polisario claimed ASADEDH was a Moroccan front organization, pointing out that its leader, former Sahrawi guerrilla Ramdan Messaoud (Arabic: رمضان مسعود), was a member of the Moroccan Royal Consultative Council for Saharan Affairs, which sponsors Sahrawi dissident activities against Polisario leadership (Publico.es [Madrid], May 21, 2021; La Vanguardia [Barcelona], June 1, 2021). The case failed to proceed after Ghali left Spain to become SADR ambassador to Algeria in 2008 (TV5monde, January 26, 2023). The criminal scrutiny on Ghali has been a factor in his movement’s failure to gain traction. The 2007 case against Ghali and other Polisario leaders for “crimes against humanity, torture, genocide, and sequestration” was reopened by a Spanish national court judge in November 2016, forcing Ghali to cancel plans to attend a conference in Spain (Polisario Confidential, November 15, 2016). In 2013, a young Sahrawi woman named Khadijatou Mahmoud Mohamed Zoubeir (Arabic: خديجة محمود محمد زبير) filed a complaint in Spain accusing the absent Ghali of a brutal rape three years earlier (Amina Magazine [Paris], October 23, 2017; Polisario Confidential, February 8, 2019). SADR President and Secretary General: 2016 The second president of the SADR, Mohamed Abdelaziz (Arabic: محمد عبد العزيز), whose tenure lasted from 1976 until 2016, died in May of that year (Al Jazeera, May 31, 2016). Polisario delegates elected Ghali as the new president in a vote in Tindouf on July 9, 2016. However, growing opposition to Ghali’s leadership led to the 2017 formation of the Sahrawi Initiative for Change (Spanish: La Iniciativa Saharaui para el Cambio), “an opposition political movement that fights against corruption, smuggling, and social inequality” inside the camps at Tindouf (Polisario Confidential, November 22, 2017; Yabiladi [Casablanca], December 26, 2018). Polisario despotism has not always been tolerated by the Sahrawi public. Demonstrations broke out in 2018 after Ghali’s Polisario was accused of engaging in torture and execution at the D’Heibya (Arabic: الذهيبية) prison of dissidents Brahim Ould Salek Ould Breika and Ahmed Ould Mohamed Radi (names in Arabic: ابراهيم ولد سالك ولد بريكة; احمد ولد محمد راضي). However, SADR statements claimed both men had committed suicide (Sahara News [Laayoune], June 6, 2018). There were reports that year that a Polisario crackdown on dissidents in Tindouf who opposed Algerian alignment or Morocco’s autonomy offers had led to the flight of hundreds of Sahrawis to Spain or Mauritania (Polisario Confidential, April 11, 2018). Armed conflict with Morocco resumed in November 2020 after Moroccan troops were deployed to the border town of Guerguerat (Arabic: الكركرات) to break up a Polisario-organized civilian blockade of a road connecting Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara with Mauritania. The Polisario claimed the military operation had violated the 1991 ceasefire, resulting in a resumption of hostilities (Al Jazeera, November 13, 2020; Arab Weekly, June 2, 2021). In November 2021, Ghali announced an escalation of the “war of liberation with all legitimate means, first and foremost the armed struggle” (Arab Weekly, November 20, 2021). The Trump administration recognized Moroccan sovereignty over all of Western Sahara in December 2020 in exchange for Rabat’s signing of the Abraham Accords normalizing relations between Israel and Arab states (see Terrorism Monitor, September 10). Deals between Israel and Morocco in the political, cultural, economic, and defense spheres followed, as Israeli missiles, drones and spyware began to make their way to Morocco (AFP, November 23, 2021). Ghali insisted Rabat had “deliberately opened the door wide open to the destructive agendas of the Zionist entity in our region, by throwing itself completely into its arms, facilitating the passage of its plans, forming military and security alliances with it, and engaging with it openly in its aggressive policies and crimes against humanity against the brotherly Palestinian people” (Sahara Press Service, July 24, 2024). Spain initially rejected the American recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, but reversed course and angered Algeria in 2022 by endorsing Morocco’s plan for “limited autonomy” in the Western Sahara. The Polisario claimed Moroccan guarantees of migrant control were partly behind Spain’s reversal (Africa Confidential, March 24, 2022). COVID and the Spanish Torture Trial: 2021 Ghali’s sudden arrival in Spain for medical treatment of COVID-19 on April 18, 2021 ignited a diplomatic crisis between Rabat and Madrid (Arab Weekly, April 26, 2021). There were Moroccan accusations, denied by Ghali’s Spanish lawyer, that he was allowed to secretly bypass passport control in Spain with a “forged” passport and was admitted to hospital in Logroño under a false name (Arab Weekly, April 26, 2021; Telquel[Casablanca], May 11, 2021; La Vanguardia [Barcelona], June 1, 2021). His entry was facilitated by the Algerian foreign minister, who warned Ghali was “gravely sick from the disease and in danger of death” (Telquel, May 11, 2021). Ghali is reported to travel on an Algerian diplomatic passport, though he is also reported to have a Spanish passport (Al Jazeera, June 1, 2021; ARA[Barcelona], May 19, 2021). The 71-year-old SADR leader had not entered Spain for ten years after failing to respond to a summons to appear before a Spanish court. Madrid declared Ghali was only allowed to seek medical treatment in Spain as a “humanitarian gesture” (Al Jazeera, June 1, 2021; Atalyar [Madrid], December 13, 2022). Morocco recalled its ambassador to Madrid in May 2021 over Ghali’s presence in Spain, while Moroccan border guards stepped aside and allowed 9,000 migrants to pour into the Spanish-controlled territory of Ceuta on the Mediterranean coast of Africa as a means of pressuring Spain. Once in Ceuta, the migrants would technically have the right to travel to mainland Europe, but some 8,000 were returned immediately by Spanish forces (Africa Confidential, March 24, 2022; La Vanguardia [Barcelona], June 1, 2021). Those who remained were mostly unaccompanied minors, who could not be returned under Spanish law (RFI, June 1, 2021). Various complaints, dormant since 2007, were reopened once a Spanish judge learned Ghali was in Spanish territory (La Vanguardia [Barcelona], June 1, 2021). Ghali was also named in a more recent torture complaint by a Polisario reform activist, El Fadel Breica (Arabic: الفاضل بريكة), a Spanish resident who was detained during a visit to Tindouf in 2019 (UNGA, June 5, 2020). Ghali testified remotely from his Spanish hospital, declaring that the complaints against him were politically motivated “to undermine the credibility of the Sahrawi people in their struggle for self-determination, which is their right as a territory” (AfricaNews, August 13, 2024). National Court judge Santiago Pedraz declared that the prosecution had not provided “even circumstantial evidence (the statements of the witnesses in the case lack corroborative evidence and do not indicate any involvement of the suspect in the events) that would support the existence of sufficient grounds to believe him responsible for any crime” (La Vanguardia [Barcelona], June 1, 2021). Spanish authorities declined to impose any restriction on Ghali’s movements, allowing him to return to Algeria on June 2, 2021 (Al Jazeera, June 2, 2021). After Ghali’s return, the Criminal Chamber of Spain’s National High Court ruled that Pedraz lacked jurisdiction to dismiss the accusations of genocide and that the proceedings had been conducted improperly (Arab Weekly, September 30, 2021). Re-election as President – 2023 Ghali was re-elected by the 16^th Congress of the Polisario as president and secretary general of SADR on January 20, 2023, defeating his rival, Mohamed Lamine Ould Bouhali (Arabic: محمد الأمين ولد البوهالي) (El Pais [Madrid], January 20, 2023). Despite having the support of Algiers, Ghali took only 69 percent of the vote, a reflection of dissatisfaction with his rule (Jeune Afrique, January 23, 2023). Since then, Ghali has stepped up the Polisario’s armed response to Morocco’s diplomatic progress in selling its plan for “limited autonomy” in the region, mainly by lobbing shells and rockets across the berm at Moroccan positions (Sahara Press Service, June 27; El Pais [Madrid], July 2). In a November 2023 speech likely designed to appeal to the global anti-colonial movement, Ghali accused Morocco of “48 years of abominable colonial practices [that] can only be described as systematic state terrorism, in all its forms, which has targeted thousands of innocent Sahrawi civilians, murdered in the most atrocious manner, buried alive, thrown from helicopters, and killed by bullets or torture, not to mention the poisoning of wells, the extermination of animals, and the massacre of citizens” (Sahara Press Service, November 7, 2023). Such appeals have had little success within the anti-colonial movement, much of which is anti-Western by nature and unaccustomed to regarding Arab nations as colonial powers. Conclusion The repressive, authoritarian leadership style displayed by Brahim Ghali and his cohorts in the Polisario leadership, coupled with repeated accusations of corruption and personal misconduct, has impaired the movement’s international standing and inspired many Sahrawis to seek new lives outside the grim, futureless camps surrounding Tindouf. Many Sahrawis fear that their prolonged struggle for independence is only a weapon cynically deployed at Algeria’s convenience against its Moroccan rival. Ghali’s failure to broaden support for Sahrawi independence beyond Algeria and a few backers in Spain’s political left has left the Sahrawi resistance militarily weak and politically incapable of a true bid for independence. Notes [1] Tomás Bárbulo: La historia prohibida del Sáhara Español, Ediciones Destino / Colección Imago Mundi vol. 21, Barcelona, 2002, pp. 66–68. [2] Pablo San Martín: Western Sahara: The Refugee Nation, University of Wales Press, 2010. [3] Besenyő János: Western Sahara, Pécs, Hungary, 2009, p. 66.

Brahim Ghali: Self-Styled “Anti-Colonial” Leader of the Polisario

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Brahim Ghali: Self-Styled “Anti-Colonial” Leader of the Polisario

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