Polisario: Brahim Ghali increasingly challenged in the Tindouf camps
On May 10, 2025, marking the 52nd anniversary of the creation of the Polisario Front, a major turning point unfolded in the Tindouf camps. A group of Sahrawi cadres, critical of the movement’s current direction, launched a petition calling for the departure of Brahim Ghali and the organization of an extraordinary congress by September. This initiative reveals growing internal divisions within the separatist ranks and a clear weakening of the authority of their long-time leader.
The petition’s signatories are calling for deep reforms, starting with the adoption of new laws that would enable a political refoundation of the movement. They aim to see a new Sahrawi leadership emerge—representative, competent, and capable of offering a new vision for what they call the “national liberation project.” This protest movement has been fueled by prolonged stagnation and rejection of the policies adopted since hostilities resumed with Morocco in November 2020.
The strongly critical statement denounces the strategic deadlock into which the Polisario has sunk under Brahim Ghali’s leadership. It calls for a “radical break” with past practices, advocating a return to the principles of internal democracy, dialogue, and reconciliation. The petition’s authors stress the need for broad consensus to rethink the movement’s future by mobilizing all Sahrawi forces that still believe in its founding ideology.
This protest echoes the call made in July 2024 by Bachir Mustapha Sayed, an influential Polisario figure, who had urged the holding of an extraordinary conference to prevent the “disappearance” of the Front. At the time, he openly criticized Ghali’s leadership, particularly the failure of the militarized strategy and the lack of political prospects for the younger Sahrawi generations.
The regional political context is further exacerbating internal tensions. In late April, Brahim Ghali was received in Algiers by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in what some viewed as an effort to reaffirm his authority. Meanwhile, the return of Abdekader Taleb Omar to the Tindouf camps—following his mission as the Polisario’s representative in Algiers—has sparked speculation. Recently promoted to the movement’s permanent secretariat and named “Minister of Education,” he is now seen as a potential successor.
As Brahim Ghali’s political grip visibly erodes, the Polisario’s internal dynamics appear to be shifting toward a possible power transition. The growing pressure for leadership renewal could, in the coming months, trigger a significant political shake-up in the Tindouf camps, with major implications for the separatist movement’s future and its relations with Algeria, its main backer.