Polisario military officer flees camps back to Morocco

A former military officer of the separatist guerilla "Polisario" group, Foudel Mohamed Bella, returned on Friday to Morocco fleeing 26 years of sufferings in the Polisario camps of Lahmada.

Foudel, 46, returned to Morocco with his spouse and his daughter, a former nurse at the camps.

Officer at the military reconnaissance unit, Mohamed Bella was recruited by the Polisario in 1975 and took part in the war against Mauritania. He was imprisoned from 1986 to 1980.

Foudel told MAP he was happy to return to his homeland and meet his mother and his six brothers and sisters who are living in Dakhla, southern Morocco, after 26 years of separation. He also reported on the continuous dislocation going on in the Polisario ranks and added that the population forcibly held by the Tindouf camps no longer trusts the promises of the puppet movement leaders who use the Sahara issue to amass money.

Populations sequestered in the camps are living in dire poverty conditions and count on the assistance of relatives living in the Moroccan Sahara or in Mauritania, he went on, adding the Polisario, shaken by an acute financial crisis has not paid salaries its civil servants for years.

Army officers receive between 12 to 17 dollars, twice a year, a situation that forces them to take other occupations such as trade or smuggling to feed their families, he said.