DR ‹ › Mohamed Ali Sid El Bachir has passed away. The official, who served as the «Minister of Occupied Territories and the Sahrawi Diaspora» since November 2021, died on Friday, according to media sources linked to the Polisario. «Suffering from cancer, he traveled to Spain two months ago for treatment, but doctors advised him to return to the Tindouf camps as his illness had reached a terminal stage,» a Sahrawi source told Yabiladi. El Bachir drew attention in December 2021 when he declared during a meeting in Paris that «SADR is not a state.» This statement led to his exclusion from any representative missions of the Polisario abroad. His affiliation with the Rguibates-Bouihates tribe, the largest in the Tindouf camps, likely protected him from more severe repercussions. In May 2025, Mohamed Ali Sid El Bachir attempted to stage a media comeback by issuing threats against foreign investors and tourists in the Sahara. «We demand that they leave our lands. They should not claim to be innocent or civilians,» he warned. «This message must reach the investors and tourists. We are in a state of war, and our people are suffering,» he declared in a video shared on social media.
