Advisers of Hezbollah and Hamas reportedly spotted in Polisario camps

Several security sources have reported the presence of foreign military advisers in the Polisario camps in Tindouf,Algeria,as well as in other secret Algerian military bases.

According to these sources,quoted by the Paris-based news outlet Sahel Intelligence,the foreigners include instructors linked to networks close to Hamas and Iranian advisers operating in the Sahel-Saharan region.

These reports,confirmed by intelligence services,echo revelations from Algerian officers regarding ties with Tehran,accusing it of allowing Hezbollah and Hamas to supply weapons and military assistance to the Polisario.

Experts in Maghreb security believe that Iran’s support for the Polisario fits into a broader strategy in North Africa and the Sahel,similar to the approach used in the Middle East with Hamas,the Houthis,and Hezbollah,the news outlet said.

These claims,cited in several reports,fuel concerns about tactical cooperation between the Polisario and militants affiliated with the Iranian-Islamist axis.

In recent years,the international community has observed the transformation of the Polisario Front—a separatist movement based in the Tindouf camps in Algeria—into a structure that is increasingly militarized and ideologically radicalized.

While the Algerian military regime continues to present the Polisario as a liberation movement,several diplomatic and security sources now consider that it aligns itself with the methods and networks of organizations classified as terrorist,such as Hamas and other groups that share a rhetoric based on armed violence.

According to confidential notes,Iran has sought to expand its influence in North Africa by supporting the Polisario in Tindouf in the same way it supports Hamas in Gaza—through the supply of weapons and military training provided by Lebanese Hezbollah,Hamas,and militias of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Hamas and the Polisario embody two facets of the same regional strategy: destabilizing states in favor of revolutionary ideologies backed by Tehran and its partners.

Western analysts warn of the growing blurring between political action and a drift toward terrorism.

There has been a resurgence of incidents along the Mauritanian border,in the Sahel region north of Mali,and in Libya,as well as the emergence of sleeper cells in the Tindouf camps,accompanied by an increase in suspicious financial flows going through certain local NGOs.