Sahrawi People's Liberation Army
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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 | |
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| 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.
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 Western 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.
Its first Secretary General was El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed. On 20 May, the new organization attacked El-Khanga, where there was a Spanish post manned by a team of Tropas Nomadas (Sahrawi-staffed auxiliary forces) was overrun and rifles seized. Polisario then gradually gained control over large swaths of desert countryside, and its power grew from early 1975 when the Tropas Nomadas began deserting to the Polisario, bringing weapons and training with them. At this point, Polisario's manpower included perhaps 800 men and women, but they were suspected of being backed by a much larger network of supporters. A UN visiting mission headed by Simeon Aké that was conducted in June 1975 concluded that Sahrawi support for independence (as opposed to Spanish rule or integration with a neighbouring country) amounted to an "overwhelming consensus" and that the Polisario Front was the most powerful political force in the country. With Algeria's help, Polisario set up headquarters in Tindouf.
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Wikipedia