Polisario Front
Frente Polisario جبهة البوليساريو Jabhat al-Bōlīsāryū |
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Secretary-General | Brahim Ghali |
Founder | El-Ouli Mustafa Sayed |
Founded | 10 May 1973 |
Headquarters | Sahrawi refugee camps, Tindouf Province, Algeria |
Youth wing | UJSARIO |
Women's wing | National Organization of Sahrawi Women |
Trade union affiliation | UGTSARIO |
Ideology |
Sahrawi nationalism Democratic socialism |
International affiliation |
Progressive Alliance Socialist International (observer) |
Colors | Red, black, white and green (Pan-Arab colors) |
Sahrawi National Council |
53 / 53
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Pan-African Parliament |
5 / 265
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Party flag | |
Website | |
saharalibre.es |
The Polisario Front, Frente Polisario, FRELISARIO or simply POLISARIO, from the Spanish abbreviation of Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro ("Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro" Arabic: الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير ساقية الحمراء و وادي الذهب Al-Jabhat Al-Sha'abiyah Li-Tahrir Saqiya Al-Hamra'a wa Wadi Al-Dhahab), is a Sahrawi rebel national liberation movement aiming to end Moroccan presence in the Western Sahara. It is an observer member of the Socialist International. 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.
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.
In 1971 a group of young Moroccan students in the universities of Morocco began organizing what came to be known as The Embryonic Movement for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro.
After attempting in vain to gain backing from several Arab governments, including both Algeria and Morocco, but only drawing faint notices of support from Libya and Mauritania, the movement eventually relocated to Spanish-controlled Spanish Sahara to start an armed rebellion.
The Polisario Front was formally constituted on 10 May 1973 at Ain Bentili by several Sahrawi university students, survivors of the 1968 massacres at Zouerate and some Sahrawi men who had served in the Spanish Army. They called themselves the Constituent Congress of the Polisario Front.