Tindouf : Ghali and El Bouhali clash during a meeting on the camps’ military regions

A new conflict is on the rise between Brahim Ghali, the Polisario Front leader and his rival Lamine Ould El Bouhali. «Their latest argument took place on Saturday, February the 10th, during a meeting held in Bir Lahlou and attended by the leaders of military regions in the Polisario», a source close to the file and which requested anonymity told Yabiladi.

Visibly overwhelmed by the words of his superior, «the Algerian official, who felt explicitly targeted by Ghali’s statements took the floor to interrupt. Then, a long and heated altercation followed : the two men started accusing each other of having failed to manage the militias», said the same source.

Frequent arguments in the Front’s leadership

For the record, Brahim Ghali has also served in the period between 1976 and 1991 as «Minister of Defense». Ould El Bouhali, on the other hand, held the same position several times before being shamelessly ousted by Mohamed Abdelaziz at the end of the Front’s 14th Congress in December 2015.

It took mediation to appease the anger of the two men and resume the meeting. The Front’s news agency and other media platforms in the Tindouf camps have all shed light on Ghali’s words to Abdellah Lahbib, while ignoring the argument.

This is definitely not the first time that Brahim Ghali and El Bouhali argue, as it became more and more frequent recently. The two men, in fact, have never been in good terms, knowing that each one of them is trying to get the upper hand and control smuggling and drug trafficking in the region. This is confirmed through the events that took place in the camps in July 2017.  

To put it in other words, gangs close to Brahim Ghali and his opponent’s followers clashed in broad day-light. More than that, the gunfight took place only a few hundred meters away from a tent where the Polisario leader was staying, visiting the camp of Aoussred.