Geneva: NGO Warns Of Recruitment Of Polisario Members As Mercenaries In Sahel-Saharan Region

Geneva,Sep 23 (TNA) An NGO - African Forum for Research and Studies on Human Rights (AFORES) has warned against the activities of polisario members who are recruited by armed groups and jihadists as mercenaries operating in the Sahel-Saharan region.

During an interactive meeting with the Working Group on the use of mercenaries organized on Wednesday in Geneva, as part of the 48th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC), the president of AFORES Zine El Abidine El Ouali, pointed to the connection between the polisario and armed groups and jihadists plaguing the Sahel region.

He noted that "the deployment of mercenaries by the polisario and Algerian services was once again illustrated with the neutralization by the French army in Mali of the terrorist known as Adnane Abu al Walid, who was trained alongside several other young people in the camps of Tindouf by Algerian security before sending them to northern Mali to serve their grisly plans in this already unstable region."

He recalled "the cases of young people from the Tindouf camps who were enrolled into armed militias by the polisario and the Algerian security services and then sent against their will to fight as mercenaries with the regime of Gaddafi to perpetrate serious violations of human rights during the Libyan revolution before being reassigned by their sponsors in the Sahel-Saharan area, where they continued their atrocious crimes against civilian populations by engaging in ethnic cleansing, kidnappings and bloody terrorist attacks against local populations and UN peacekeepers."