Algeria would exert political and diplomatic pressure on Tunisia so that it agrees to accommodate members of the Polisario Front on its territory. This is what several concordant sources advance, relayed by Moroccan media, in a context where Washington would plan to classify the Sahraoui movement as a terrorist organization.
According to Rue20 (April 13, 2025), this initiative would discreetly move the logistical presence of the Polisario – currently confined to the Tindouf camps – to Tunisia. This repositioning would allow Algiers to take its formal distances from movement, while retaining an indirect influence.
Bladi.net (April 15, 2025) evokes an international forum project in Tunis on the “oppressed peoples”, whose participation of the Polisario would be controlled by the Undergen, with financial support. This format would be used to legitimize their presence on Tunisian soil in a framework presented as humanitarian or intellectual.
Aldar.ma (April 3, 2025) reports that Tunisian attempts to reconnect with Rabat would come up against active Algerian maneuvers. These would aim to lock Tunis’s position on the Saharan file, aligning it with that of Algiers.
This game of influence unfolds while Tunisia is going through a period of vulnerability. Cornered by persistent economic and social crises, it depends in part on the energy and security assistance of its Algerian neighbor. Some Tunisian diplomats fear that this dependence would open the way to concessions of a geostrategic nature.
Note that several Algerian media report that Algiers would have already used the gas pressure and the closure of borders as levers of influence, especially during periods of tension with Carthage.
But this time, the issue exceeds bilateral logics. An official welcome, or even tolerated, of members of the Polisario could place Tunis in the viewfinder of Washington, who hardened his policy vis-à-vis the paramilitary movements operating in the MENA region.
It remains to be seen how far Tunis will agree to go to spare Algiers without compromising his diplomatic balances. Between regional solidarity, national sovereignty and international pressure, the room for maneuver is narrowed.
