Under the banner of Sahara Press Service (SPS), the official propaganda organ of the Polisario Front and the Algerian military regime, communiqués are proliferating, openly claiming armed attacks against Moroccan armed forces.
Over the past months, the separatist movement appears to have entered a new phase: one of asymmetric warfare logic, defiant of the United States and repeated UN calls for dialogue.
In recent publications, SPS lauds the “exploits” of its armed units. On 8 October 2025, it announced: “Units of the Sahrawi People’s Liberation Army targeted the bases of occupation soldiers in the Mahbès sector, inflicting heavy human and material losses”. A month earlier, on 11 September, a similar announcement claimed bombings against “artillery positions of the Moroccan occupation army” in the Haouza and Guelta regions. On 25 September, other attacks were claimed against “enemy bases and trenches” in the Farsiya sector.
For many observers, this glorification of violence marks an ideological radicalization of Polisario, seeking to sustain armed tension to maintain media and political relevance.
In the Tindouf camps in southwestern Algeria, several reliable sources report a military remobilization of Polisario since the collapse of the ceasefire in November 2020.
A confidential report from the Algerian national gendarmerie claims that the camps now host over 7,000 trained fighters, supported logistically and financially through Algerian and Iranian military networks.
Algerian military bases near the Mauritanian and Malian borders reportedly serve as strategic transit points for weapons and fuel trafficking, according to several reports from Western and African intelligence services.
Regional and Western intelligence agencies are increasingly concerned about links between Polisario elements and jihadist networks operating in the Sahel.
A European diplomat based in Nouakchott stated: “The line between separatist activism and terrorist activity has become blurred. Polisario factions are attempting to barter their military expertise for funding or resources”. This drift causes alarm among Algeria’s neighboring states.
Analysts see these attacks and propaganda as provocations orchestrated from Algiers, which allegedly supports, arms, and funds the Polisario in order to destabilize the region and obstruct the UN-led political process, especially efforts backed by the United States.
According to a senior UN official: “These so-called military victories are mere staged performances. But behind this communication lies a genuine will by the Algerian military regime and Iran, through mercenaries from Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, to sabotage regional stability and propagate the doctrine of Shiism in North Africa and beyond”.
Within the Tindouf camps themselves, discontent is growing. Many young Sahrawis decry the seizure of humanitarian aid, repression of dissenters, and forced militarization of African immigrants.
For the international community, the question becomes urgent: how can one continue to treat the Polisario as a political interlocutor when it publicly claims military operations and adopts near-terrorist rhetoric?