Washington – The kidnapping of European humanitarian aid workers last Sunday in the Polisario camps, southwestern Algeria, is a “strong signal” of “the urgent need to settle the Sahara issue, the US NGO Teach the Children International has said.
“The kidnapping within the Polisario tightly run camps is a strong signal to the International community of the urgent need to resolve the Sahara Issue and free the refugees held hostages on Algerian territory by those who would use their presence as an opportunity to further their personal interests,” the NGO said.
It insisted that “the international community should take the issue of the kidnapping in the camps seriously as the situation is going to become more and more dangerous as long as Algeria does not assume its responsibility for the safety of both the refugees and the aid workers. “
Teach the Children International urged the UN to require Algeria to take a more active role in camp administration in order to help assure that all al Qaeda activities in the camps are contained.
Moreover, the UN should examine more closely its policy in allowing the Polisario to be the sole monitors of the camps, it said.
The NGO denounced the Polisario’s involvement in humanitarian aid diversion, which, it went on, caused it to “suspend all humanitarian aid to the Sahrawi camps.”
