The Polisario Front's representative in Europe and to the European Union, Oubi Bouchraya Bachir, resigned on Thursday from all his organic posts because of "deep disagreements" with the leader of the political-military organisation, Brahim Ghali.
"After a firm request months ago, today I submitted my resignation in writing to the Polisario Secretary from my post as Europe and EU officer. I thanked him for his confidence, but deep disagreements with him on vision and methods forced me to take this difficult decision", the Sahrawi diplomat explained on Twitter.
The resignation comes two weeks after the 46th edition of the European Conference of Solidarity and Support to the Sahrawi People (EUCOCO) was held in Berlin, an event organised by Bachir himself and attended by the Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), Bouchraya Hammoudi Bayoun, and the Minister of Cooperation, Fatma Mehdi.
1/2.Después de una petición firme hace meses, hoy presenté mi dimisión por escrito al #SG del #POLISARIO de mi cargo “encargado de Europa y UE”. Le agradecí la confianza, pero discrepancias profundas con él sobre la visión y los métodos me obligaron a tomar esta difícil decisión.
— Oubi Bachir (@oubibachir) December 14, 2022
Morocco did not hesitate to describe the meeting as a "failure" due to the absence, among other actors, of the NGO Western Sahara Resource Watch, due to alleged disagreements with Oubi Bachir. In addition, the same week, the Bundestag hosted a meeting of Saharawi civil society.
"I will carry out the mandate, which the people gave me, until the dissolution of the National Secretariat of the Polisario Front on 13 January 2023. It is definitely not my intention to stand again", Bachir pointed out, adding in the same message that he would continue to defend the Saharawi cause "until the last breath of my life".