The UN’s 1975 visiting-mission report describes a movement seeking independence and opposing the territorial claims of both Morocco and Mauritania. Polisario subsequently becomes Rabat’s main political and military opponent on this issue.
The movement, the diverse Sahrawi population and the republic it will proclaim in 1976 are distinct. Not all Sahrawis live in the Tindouf camps, and their political preferences cannot be inferred from identity alone. Algeria becomes Polisario’s main supporter; this regional support does not remove the need to examine the anti-colonial movement’s own history.