Polisario independence movement picks chief close to Algeria

ALGIERS, Algeria – The Polisario Front, the Western Sahara independence movement, has elected a new leader, founding member Brahim Ghali, following the death of its top chief for four decades.

APS, the official Algerian news agency, reported the election of Ghali as new secretary general, which automatically makes him president of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, recognized by numerous African nations. Ghali replaces Mohamed Abdelaziz, who died on May 31 following an illness.

The election Saturday of Ghali, most recently ambassador to Algeria, took place at a refugee camp in Dakhla, in Western Sahara territory which Morocco annexed in 1975 and claims as its “southern provinces.”

Ghali, 66, once served as defence minister for the Polisario, fighting for independence since the movement’s birth in 1973.

The independence struggle has raised tensions between Morocco and neighbouring Algeria, which backs the Polisario and declared a week of mourning when Abdelaziz died.

Morocco, which has developed large swaths of the mineral-rich desert territory, wants to give the Western Saharan people more autonomy, but is opposed to a referendum on independence.

Ghali was quoted by APS as saying that “Algeria will be my first destination” before taking part in an African Union summit that started Sunday in Kigali, Rwanda, and runs through July 18. At the summit, he said he would “testify to the unity of the Sahrawi people and its determination to continue the combat against the Moroccan occupier.”