Tindouf camps were created in the mid-seventies to host Sahrawis lured by the propaganda of "Polisario," which claimed to separate the Moroccan southern provinces, knows as the Sahara, after they were retrieved by the north Africa kingdom from Spanish rule, under the Madrid accords.
In a Zouirate dated story, the daily, quoting former "Polisario" member, Salama Ould Mohamed, said "the situation in the South of Algeria and the dire living conditions are factors forcing weary people to settle in this region close to their tribes."
A Zouirate inhabitant, Mohamed Salem told the daily the Mauritanian mining town is growing not because of the iron ore mining, but because of the incoming people from the Tindouf camps, who are seeking Mauritanian Ids or transiting via the town to go home.
“Luxury houses in poor neighbourhoods are appearing in this town, where most inhabitants work for the iron mining company,” the daily said, adding the rich houses “belong to influential people of ‘Polisario,’ who abandoned the South of Algeria to settle in Zouirate.”
These people insist on using Moroccan building techniques helped by Moroccan construction workers and craftsmen from Moroccan city of Fès, the daily said adding this fact shows “their attachment to their origin country.”
Hundreds of families coming from Tindouf have bought or built houses in Mauritanian northern towns, and some of them want to settle there to be closer again with their tribes, while others would go elsewhere, said Salama Ould Mohamed.