As Washington debates new measures targeting the POLISARIO Front, one basic distinction is often overlooked: the Sahrawi liberation movement, the Sahrawi Republic and its armed forces are closely connected, but they are not the same institution.

Recent reports about Western Sahara often use images of Sahrawi soldiers when referring to the POLISARIO Front. The visual association is immediate: POLISARIO, armed fighters, guerrilla movement. But this simplifies a political and institutional reality that is essential to understanding Western Sahara.

The POLISARIO Front, founded in 1973, is the Sahrawi national liberation movement. The United Nations has recognized it as the representative of the people of Western Sahara in the decolonization process. POLISARIO led the armed struggle first against Spanish colonial rule and later against Moroccan occupation, but presenting it today simply as a military organization ignores its political role and its position in the UN process.

The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) is not another name for POLISARIO. Proclaimed in 1976, it has its own state institutions —including a Presidency, Government and Parliament— and is a full member of the African Union. Its political structures are closely linked to the POLISARIO Front, but the two are not institutionally identical.

The Sahrawi People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) constitutes the Sahrawi armed forces. Since the collapse of the 1991 ceasefire in November 2020, Sahrawi forces and the Moroccan military have again been engaged in hostilities along the wall dividing Western Sahara.

The distinction can therefore be summarized simply:

POLISARIO: national liberation movement and Sahrawi representative in the decolonization process.
SADR: the Sahrawi Republic and a full member of the African Union.
SPLA: the Sahrawi armed forces.

They belong to the same national liberation struggle and their structures sometimes overlap. But they are not synonyms.

Reducing Western Sahara to “Morocco versus a guerrilla movement” erases the central issue: an unfinished process of decolonization, a people with a recognized right to self-determination, a national liberation movement representing them, a Republic represented within the African Union and its own armed forces.

Understanding that distinction is particularly important at a time when the political debate surrounding POLISARIO is again reaching Washington.