Military and political organisation in Western Sahara
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Polisario Front
جبهة البوليساريو Jabhat al-Bōlīsāryū Frente Polisario
Secretary-General
Brahim Ghali
Founder
El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed
Founded
10 May 1973 (10 May 1973)
Headquarters
Sahrawi refugee camps, Tindouf Province, Algeria
Youth wing
Sahrawi Youth Union
Women's wing
National Union of Sahrawi Women
Trade union affiliation
Sahrawi Trade Union
Armed wing
Sahrawi People's Liberation Army
Ideology
Sahrawi nationalism Arab socialism[1] Arab nationalism Social democracy Democratic socialism Secularism[2] Historical: Marxism[3]
Political position
Left-wing[2]
International affiliation
Progressive Alliance Socialist International (consultative)
Colors
Red, black, white, and green (Pan-Arab colors)
Anthem
"صحراؤنا هي الوطن" lit.'Sahara is our Homeland'
Sahrawi National Council
51 / 51
Pan-African Parliament
5 / 5
(Sahrawi Republic seats)
Party flag
Website
frentepolisario.es
Politics of Western Sahara
Political parties
Elections
The Polisario Front, Frente Polisario, Frelisario or simply Polisario (from the Spanish acronym of Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro; lit.'Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro'; Arabic: الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير الساقية الحمراء ووادي الذهب, romanized: al-Jabhah al-Shaʿbiyah Li-Taḥrīr as-Sāqiyah al-Ḥamrāʾ wa Wādī al-Dhahab), is a rebel Sahrawi nationalist liberation movement claiming Western Sahara.
Tracing its origin to a Sahrawi nationalist organization known as the Movement for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Wadi el Dhahab, the Polisario Front was formally constituted in 1973 with the intention of launching an armed struggle against the Spanish occupation which lasted until 1975, when the Spanish decided to allow Mauritania and Morocco to partition and occupy the territory. The Polisario Front waged a war to drive out the two armies. It forced Mauritania to relinquish its claim over Western Sahara in 1979 and continued its military campaign against Morocco until the 1991 ceasefire, pending the holding of a UN-backed referendum which has been consistently postponed ever since. In 2020 the Polisario Front declared the ceasefire over and resumed the armed conflict.
The United Nations considers the Polisario Front to be the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people and maintains that the Sahrawis have a right to self-determination.[4][5] The Polisario Front is outlawed in the parts of Western Sahara under Moroccan control, and it is illegal to raise its party flag (often called the Sahrawi flag) there.[6] It is a consultative member of the Socialist International.[7]
^Ottaway, David; Ottaway, Marina (1981). Afrocommunism. Africana Publishing Company. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-8419-0664-8.
^ abCite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Hooper, John (11 February 1999). "The Polisario's Marxist past sinks into the desert sands". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
^United Nations General Assembly Resolution 34/37: Question of Western Sahara. Adopted on 21 November 1979. Full document Archived 4 June 2020 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 8 January 2020.
^Stefan Gänzle; Benjamin Leruth; Jarle Trondal (15 November 2019). Differentiated Integration and Disintegration in a Post-Brexit Era. Taylor & Francis. p. 191. ISBN 978-0-429-64884-7. Archived from the original on 22 March 2023. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
^"UN calls for peace in Western Sahara – Vatican News". www.vaticannews.va. 17 November 2020. Archived from the original on 21 September 2021. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
^Member parties of the Socialist International – Observer parties Archived 1 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Socialistinternational.org.
The PolisarioFront, Frente Polisario, Frelisario or simply Polisario (from the Spanish acronym of Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río...
Sahara Occidental) was an armed struggle between the Sahrawi indigenous PolisarioFront and Morocco from 1975 to 1991 (and Mauritania from 1975 to 1979), being...
Democratic Republic/PolisarioFront and the Kingdom of Morocco. The conflict originated from an insurgency by the PolisarioFront against Spanish colonial...
erupted between those countries and a Sahrawi nationalist movement, the PolisarioFront, which proclaimed itself the rightful leadership of the SADR with a...
example, both sides in the Western Sahara conflict (Morocco vs. the PolisarioFront) draw heavily on colonial history to prove their version of reality...
the other being Equatorial Guinea. The SADR was proclaimed by the PolisarioFront on 27 February 1976, in Bir Lehlou, Western Sahara. The SADR government...
Kingdom of Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro (PolisarioFront), which is an independence movement...
main function of the barriers is to exclude guerrilla fighters of the PolisarioFront, who have sought Western Saharan independence since before Spain ended...
led by the PolisarioFront against Spanish colonial rule in the Spanish Sahara, from 10 May 1973 to 26 February 1976. The PolisarioFront was formally...
considers the PolisarioFront as a separatist movement given the alleged Moroccan origins of some of its leaders. The PolisarioFront argues that according...
general congress of the PolisarioFront, where it was decided the post were to be held by the Secretary-General of the Polisario. The first President was...
1980s, several members of POLISARIO have decided to discontinue their military or political activities for the PolisarioFront. Most of them returned from...
internal pressure from the native Sahrawi population, through the PolisarioFront, and the claims of Morocco and Mauritania. After gaining independence...
a French-operated transport force, and has seen combat against the PolisarioFront in the 1970s. The Mauritania Islamic Air Force came into being shortly...
prompting them to begin supporting a Sahrawi nationalist group, the PolisarioFront. In the late 1970s, the group began conducting guerrilla warfare in...
between 13 and 22 January 2023 to renovate the governing bodies of the PolisarioFront and establish the movement's main lines of action and strategy for...
United Nations in 2007. The Polisario rejected the plan and put forward its own proposal. Morocco and the PolisarioFront held UN-sponsored talks in New...
of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic refers to politics of the PolisarioFront's proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, a country in North Africa...
rule, the foundation of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro (PolisarioFront) in 1973, and the Sahrawi Republic in...
the UN have contacts with the PolisarioFront and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (established by the PolisarioFront) is member state of the OAU since...
Plan de Arreglo) was an agreement between the ethnically Saharawi PolisarioFront and Morocco on the organization of a referendum, which would constitute...
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic's government in exile, led by the PolisarioFront and headquartered at Camp Rabouni, Algeria, maintains diplomatic relations...