Through his remarks, a so-called «minister» of the Polisario is fueling campaigns in the United States seeking to label the Front as a terrorist organization. Mustapha Sidi Ali Ould El Bachir, responsible for the «occupied territories and the Sahrawi diaspora», has called on Polisario militias to target «any foreign investor or tourist present in the occupied territories». «We demand that they leave our land. They should not pretend to be innocent or mere civilians», he warned. «This message must reach investors and tourists. We are at war, and our people are suffering», he said in a video shared on social media. Ould El Bachir also voiced his support for the Houthis in Yemen, whom the U.S. administration has been targeting in recent weeks. The United States officially designated the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization on March 3. It is worth noting that during a meeting in France in December 2021, Ould El Bachir publicly stated that «SADR is not a state». Since then, he has been sidelined within the movement but remains at liberty in the Tindouf camps—largely due to his personal wealth and the protection of his tribe, the Rguibates-Bouihates, which shields him from potential retaliation by Algerian authorities.
