Polisario militias have kidnapped about ten Mauritanian gold prospectors near El Malhate, despite the area being inside Mauritanian territory. «Elements of the Front carried out operations on Tuesday and Wednesday against Mauritanians engaged in this activity in their own country. They started by destroying tents, seizing vehicles, and then forcibly took more than ten prospectors to an unknown location in the Tindouf camps on Algerian soil», a Moroccan security source told Yabiladi. «The Polisario militias also beat the gold prospectors and confiscated their equipment», the same source added. Following the intervention of the Mauritanian army, the Polisario promised to «release» the hostages and «offer apologies» in an effort to defuse tensions between the two sides. The incident comes against a backdrop of strained relations between the separatist movement and Mauritania, particularly after President Ould El Ghazouani turned down an invitation from Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to meet Brahim Ghali in Algiers on the sidelines of the 4th Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF 2025). It is worth recalling that last May, armed members of the Front crossed into Mauritanian territory just weeks after the Nouakchott army sealed off the Lebreiga region, near the Algerian border and the Tindouf camps. That episode also ended with the Front's «apologies». Back in the 1970s and 1980s, the Polisario had already kidnapped hundreds of Mauritanian nationals.
