The embezzled food is sold by "Polisario" leaders in some countries like Mali, said Monday the Malian newspaper "Le Républicain" assuming the nabbed "captain" could be member of a network that smuggle the goods out of the camps.

The Algeria-backed "Polisario" that lured in the mid-seventies thousands of Sahrawis into the Tindouf camps, south-west Algeria, after it waged war on Morocco claiming the separation of the Moroccan southern provinces, is charged with embezzling international humanitarian aid depriving the population of donated food and other products.

The Malian daily said the "captain" was, at the moment of the arrest, in possession of food products non declared to the Customs and the aim of his presence in Timbuktu was to sell the goods.

MAP