Involvement
of individuals active within the military institutions of the polisario
front in the kidnapping of Spanish hostages held by the Sahelian branch
of AQIM.

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     Nouakchott,
1^st of April 2010– After long weeks of
a wait and see attitude, the truth has been brought to light about the
circumstances of the kidnapping in the popular main Nouadhibou-Nouakchott
road on the 29^th of November 2009, of three Spanish aid workers
of a Catalan NGO transporting aids for underprivileged populations in
some Sub-Saharan countries, as well as the kidnapping of an Italian
couple on 18 December 2009, in the region of Kobeni located at about
700 kms away from Nouakchott.

     – Indeed, after having confirmed through the Mauritanian foreign Minister,
M. Naha Ould Mouknass that “all the individuals” who took part in
the kidnapping of an Italian couple last December in Mauritania, are
in custody, Nouakchott has just announced that the main perpetrator
of the kidnapping of the three Spanish hostages held by Al Qaida in
the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim) has been charged and detained along with
five other suspects and two other individuals whom are subject to legal
restrictions pending trial.

     In
the aftermath of these events, the Mauritanian Judicial authorities
have announced on the 29^th of March, that 20 individuals
were charged and arrested for being members of a group of traffickers
allegedly linked to Aqim.

     These
recent developments highlight the determination of the new Mauritanian
administration to put a halt to the use of the Mauritanian soil by terrorist
and criminal groups. In fact, the Mauritanian authorities became alarmed
about the upsurge of trafficking activities of all kinds in this country
and the movements of terrorist groups linked to the Maghrebian branch
of Al Qaida. Henceforth, the Security Services in Mauritania have conducted
investigations with the aim of bringing to justice the perpetrators
of these odious kidnapping operations.

     The
probe has unveiled that these acts were the work of criminal networks
active with complete impunity in the vast no man’s land in the triangle
border area between Mauritania, Algeria and Mali. Even worse, those
criminals are non others than traffickers originally from the polisario
camps in Tindouf of whom some are still active within the “Military”
structures of this separatist movement headquartered in southwestern
Algeria. 

      The investigations have, moreover, confirmed that the kidnapping of
the three Spanish Aid Workers of which two are still held by Mokhtar
Belmokhtar, an emir of AQIM in the Sahel, would not be possible without
the contribution of the individual named Omar Ould Sid’Ahmed Ould
Hamma aka Omar Sahraoui, an operative of the polisario front currently
in custody within the Central prison of Nouakchott as he has been found
guilty by the Mauritanian Justice of being the main perpetrator of the
said abduction.

     According
to sources close to the Mauritanian probe, in addition to the detention
of this individual directly linked to Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who radicalized
him and entirely channeled him towards bringing logistical support to
AQIM’s “Jihadi cause” relying on the criminal network operating
from the polisario camps, the Mauritanian authorities have also managed
to charge more than twenty other suspects for involvement in the same
case of whom some have been identified as “Military personnel” of
the polisario front including three individuals named Mohamed Salem
Mohamed Ali Ould Rguibi, aged about fifty years, soldier within the
4th military region of the polisario front called «M’heriz», Mohamed
Salem Hamoud, aged about twenty years and who is active within the same
military region and Nafii Ould Mohamed M’Barek, aged about forty years
and who was active within the « 7th military region of the polisario
before getting involved in contraband and smuggling activities between
Zouerate and Atar in northern Mauritania.

     Beyond
these considerations, it became crystal clear that the results of the
investigations conducted by the authorities of Mauritania underscore
the extent of the connections set by AQIM’s “Sahelian emirs” with
criminal networks in countries of the region where they received the
watchword to “subcontract” terrorist activities of the Maghrebian
branch of Al Qaida through kidnapping westerners and then selling them
to this terrorist organization’s groups stationed in northern Mali.

     This
case is an umpteenth evidence disclosing AQIM’s tactics in capitalizing
persistent separatist conflicts in the area such as the conflict over
the Moroccan Sahara, to buy the services of some separatists that could
be easily oriented towards facilitating terrorist activities as a result
of the failure of their polisario leaders to offer them better and reassuring
political perspectives for their future.