This was confirmed by a report of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Algeria on the period 2019-2022, which reports the “absence” of direct control over the distribution of general food aid and free access to the camps, indicating that the polisario has a “limited” capacity to ensure compliance with humanitarian principles in the camps, says the Spanish media.
Conducted by an independent evaluation team at the request of the WFP, the report “also recognizes that the independent external evaluation team conducted its evaluation under severe restrictions imposed by the polisario,” the publication noted.
“Over the past 45 years, the populations living in the camps have continued to suffer from food insecurity and malnutrition, with high rates of anemia due to shortages of fresh and varied food and limited access to water, and remain dependent on external food aid,” the WFP document noted, quoted by the Spanish agency.
”The WFP report also mentions a significant negligence on the part of Algeria in the distribution of aid”, notes Servimedia. However, the agency argues, this is not the first time that a lack of control of aid in the Tindouf camps has been pointed out.
In 2015, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) detected flaws in the aid between 2003 and 2017 and highlighted the direct involvement of the polisario in the sale of humanitarian aid on the Algerian, Mauritanian and sub-Saharan markets with the connivance of Algeria, the host country of the Tindouf camps, concludes Servimedia.
