TERRORISM AND PRIVATIZATION OF STATE SPACES IN THE SAHEL: CASE OF THE POLISARIO FRONT
TERRORISM AND PRIVATIZATION OF STATE SPACES IN THE SAHEL: CASE OF THE POLISARIO FRONT

Summary/Abstract: For several decades, the Sahel (Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Nigeria) has been at the heart of global insecurity. Several illicit trafficking activities are taking place there (drug and fuel trafficking, human trafficking, arms sales), encouraged by armed groups. These practices extend to southern Algeria, on the border with Mauritania, where the Polisario Front, an outdated political-military movement desperately trying to create a hypothetical state in southern Morocco, is active. In this way, it is obvious that a link can be established between the terrorist movements and the Polisario Front. This reflection intends to privilege the diachronic approach, by exploiting documentary sources and oral data from interviews in Bamako. At the end of this analysis, it can be affirmed that the Polisario Front participates in hostage-taking, ransom demands, and various illicit trafficking in the Sahel. Likewise, several jihadist movement fighters are recruited into the ranks of the Polisario Front fighters. In view of all this, the Polisario Front can be linked to a terrorist movement.

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