Algeria officially opened its territory to «Sahrawi refugees» fleeing «Moroccan occupation» only after the Green March. But this narrative is challenged by historical facts, documented by the United Nations. It's time to revisit a forgotten chapter of the Western Sahara conflict. In May 1975, six months before King Hassan II announced the launch of the Green March on November 6 in his October 16 speech, a United Nations delegation traveled to the Sahara, Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria, as well as Dakar and Paris. The mission had been mandated by a UN General Assembly resolution adopted on December 13, 1974. After visiting Madrid and the Sahara, then still under Spanish occupation, the delegation continued to Morocco, where they were received by King Hassan II, and then to Mauritania. On May 28, 1975, the UN mission arrived in Algeria. After a meeting with President Houari Boumediene, the delegation, according to the UN report, «traveled on May 29 to Tindouf, a town in southwestern Algeria just a few dozen kilometers from the Saharan border. During its stay in the Tindouf region, the mission was accompanied by Mr. Omar Mohamed Ali, a member of the Executive Committee of the POLISARIO Front». The Tindouf Camps: An Algerian Project Dating Back to 1967 Upon arriving in Tindouf, the UN delegation visited a refugee camp in Oum El Assel, where they spoke with representatives of refugee groups. On the way back, the mission stopped at Sabkhat Abdallah to visit another camp. That same day, the delegation traveled 80 kilometers from Tindouf «accompanied by POLISARIO Front leaders, members of the international press, and soldiers from the Liberation Army armed with machine guns, to an unidentified valley, where they met 14 Spanish officers and soldiers captured by the POLISARIO Front». The interview with the prisoners, conducted in the absence of POLISARIO leaders, guards, and journalists, focused on the conditions of their arrest and detention. The following day, the mission visited another «refugee camp in Tindouf», according to the report. The UN delegation's stay concluded with an extended working session with a POLISARIO Front delegation led by Secretary General Said Louali. The delegation also included Executive Committee members Omar Mohamed Ali and Mahfoud Ali Bayba, as well as three members of the Political Bureau: Brahim Ghali (now the head of the POLISARIO Front), Moussa, and Ahmed Kaid, according to the document consulted by Yabiladi. The UN mission's report confirmed the presence of three «camps» housing «Sahrawi refugees». These historical findings align with details from a confidential Spanish diplomatic document previously cited by Yabiladi. In a letter dated May 27, 1967, the Spanish ambassador in Algiers informed Madrid of Algeria's ambition to transform Tindouf into «the capital of the Reguibates in the entire region». According to the letter, this ambition had been personally shared by Algeria's then-Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who described the project as «a prelude to building the Great Maghreb».
