Through this qsar that became a city, in this case Tindouf, we will look into the French secret archives to understand what the French officers and the Moroccan populations said before the annexation of the qsar for the benefit of Algeria.
Indeed, the year 1958, two years after the independence of Morocco and four years after the abolition of the command of the borders of Agadir in 1954-1955, which gave Morocco the right to control the Saharan regions going as far as the north of Mauritania, France decided to create a state “Reguibat» to use it as an obstacle to the advance of the fighters of the Moroccan Liberation Army. This project followed the refusal of King Mohammed V to negotiate the question of borders with France and to benefit from the joint exploitation of the Gara Djbilet iron mine. The late Mohammed V preferred to settle the border dispute with the Algerian brothers once their independence had been acquired.
These secret reports on Tindouf reveal facts that run counter to the official narrative of post-1962 Algeria. This was the case of Algerian machinations on the eve of independence in 1962 when the mayor of Adrar charged by the FLN cell in Gao (present-day Mali) with setting up an FLN committee in Tindouf was chased out by the population who considered themselves Moroccan. . Following this failure, a second attempt was orchestrated by the Algerian Army which asked the leader of Tadjakant to take command of an FLN committee, but the latter declined the offer.
On June 28, French authorities slowed down the recovery of Tindouf by Morocco and facilitated its annexation by Algeria: “After the failure of the mission of the mayor of Adrar sent to Tindouf in May (1962) by the FLN cell of Gao (Mali) to constitute a people’s committee (the presidency was offered to the caid of Tadjakant who refused it), the prefect of Colomb-Béchar asked the Provisional Executive around June 15 to establish a unit of the ALN (National Liberation Army) there, declaring that he considered this territory as part of of Algeria, free to the Reguibat to leave it if they wished, to join Morocco»[1]. Many of these Reguibat considered Moroccans and other Sahrawi tribes were forced to undergo a reverse displacement in 1975: to the Tindouf camps this time because the town had been Algerianized.
Another secret document dating from May 30, 1962, but more incisive, speaks of the historical and political reality of Moroccan markets in the Sahara and confirms that:
«Traditionally and for reasons of distance, the economic exchanges of these nomads have always been carried out with Morocco. Their only profitable outlets for the sale of their camels are the markets of southern Morocco and especially Goulmim nicknamed the “port of the Sahara”. The majority of the clientele of the annual moussem created by us in Tindouf in 1950, as well as the main traders of this center are Moroccan».
The same secret document makes a revelation which partly explains the motivations which governed the Atlantic Sahara conflict:
«Conversely, it is from Morocco that all the convoys bringing supplies or materials to Western Sahara and as far as Atar (Mauritania) left from 1934 until 1956, while two of the three railway construction projects for the evacuation of ore from Gara-Djebilet led the line to the Atlantic coast south of Agadir».
This document also unequivocally recognizes the historical links between Tindouf and the Kingdom of Morocco:
«It is true that Moroccan propaganda, whose demands encompass the entire “Trab R’guebi” and which presents the Alaouite Kingdom as the replacement for France in the economic support of the nationals of Tindouf, has already borne fruit among them. who, for a long time now, have been saying prayers in the name of the King. The different factions, including the leaders of our Harkis, made contacts and assurances both in Tarfaya and in Rabat where several delegations went on the occasion of Eid El Kébir and pledged allegiance to Hassan II».
It was following an alliance between Algeria, heir to the colonial project, Spain which wanted to safeguard its positions in the Sahara and France which defended its interests in Mauritania to which it was allied by defense agreements, that the recovery of Tindouf had failed. Added to this is the fact that the French armed presence in and around Tindouf worked in favor of an Algerian military occupation compatible with the Evian agreements. Just as the Franco-Spanish alliance on Morocco’s refusal to recover Tindouf resulted in the project of passing the railway line to evacuate the ore from Gara Djebilet through the so-called Spanish Sahara. This project did not come to fruition, but independent Algeria will subscribe to it and mobilize considerable resources, from 1973, aimed at countering the territorial integrity of Morocco in the hope of opening a corridor on the Atlantic.[2].
[1] Intelligence Division, Intelligence Operations Center, Secret Document, No. 336, Courneuve, Box 147, Morocco 1956-1968.
[2] Jillali El Adnani, “The Sahara put to the test of colonization, a new look at territorial questions»Publications of the Faculty of Letters, Rabat, 4th edition, 2022.
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