Western Sahara independent leader Brahim Ghali returns to Algeria | Conflicting Issues
Brahim Ghali has returned to Algeria after being hospitalized in Spain which sparked tensions between Spain and Morocco.
The leader of an independent group in Western Sahara, Brahim Ghali, has returned to Algeria after spending a month in Spain.
The arrival of the Polisario Front chief at a hospital in Spain sparked a dispute between Spain and Morocco.
“She arrived safely,” said Jalil Mohamed, a spokesman for the Polisario Front in Spain.
Ghali arrived in Algiers around 3am (0200 GMT), where he will continue his recovery in the COVID-19 case, Polisario Front’s Abdelkader Taleb Omar told APS in Algeria.
He added that Ghali’s good health meant that he no longer needed medical treatment in Spain.
An Algerian government video showed President Abdelmadjid Tebboune visiting Ghali at a military hospital, but did not elaborate.
Rabat did not comment on Ghali’s departure from Spain but said that this was not the only solution.
The Algerian-backed Polisario Front is fighting for the independence of Western Sahara, which was a Spanish colony until the mid-1970s and is said to be Morocco.
Ghali, who had a severe case of COVID-19, was admitted to a Spanish hospital in April for treatment, the Madrid government said.
He left Spain a few hours later after appearing in a distance to be heard by a Spanish court of war. Following obedience, the judges did not impose any rules on the head of the Polisario and allow him to leave the country.
Spanish decision to allow Ghali at a hospital in northern Spain in Logrono, on Algerian papers and without informing Rabat, became very angry in Morocco.
Moroccan officials said sudden increase last month of the 10,000 migrants and refugees from Spain in northern Africa in Ceuta after Moroccan security forces appeared to be loosening the border control was a way of retaliation.
Pedro Sanchez’s government has accused Rabat of being “cruel” and “cruel” to those who have arrived.
Algeria’s support for the independent Polisario Front is also a source of frustration in Morocco.
