COVID-19 Crisis Worsens in Tindouf Camps as Polisario Leaders Isolate, Leaving Residents Without Aid

The inhabitants of the camps live in difficult conditions without care, without health care during this period of health crisis after the leaders of the Polisario Front closed the borders with Tindouf as part of the state of health emergency, reports Sahara News.

While they have claimed that the pandemic has not reached the camps, human rights activists based in Laayoune and Dakhla have stated that at least 250 people have been infected with the coronavirus.

According to the lawyer and human rights activist, Youssef Gharib, 17 armed elements of the Polisario have also been infected with covid-19, near the borders with Mauritania. He reported that the affected people live in camps devoid of any security and protection. They were placed in rooms without a sanitary isolation protocol; which is contrary to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). There are no health facilities, no disinfectants, no respirators.

Also, he denounced the repression of communication with the outside. The situation is alarming and the international community and the WHO must be called upon to intervene to save a "destitute and abandoned" population facing a devastating pandemic, the human rights activist said.