New year, new government...

[picture: tifariti, awaiting the population boom.]

... of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. New names gets a red N.

• Prime Minister: Abdelkader Taleb Oumar
• Minister of Occupied Territories and Emigration: El Khalil Sidi M'Hamed
• Minister of the Interior: Bellahi Sid
• Minister of Foreign Affairs: Mohamed Salem Ould Salek
• Ministre de la Coopération: Salek Baba Hacena
  
• Minister of Public Health: Sid'Ahmed Tayeb (N)
• Minister of Population and Reconstruction of the Liberated Territories: Salek Babih (N)
  
• Minister of Economic Development: Nema Saaid Joumani (N)
• Minister of Materials: Sid' Ahmed Batal
• Minister of National Defense: Mohamed Lamine Bouhali
• Minister of Education: Mariem Salek H'mada
• Minister of Information: Mohamed El Mami Tamek (N)
• Minister of Commerce: Selama Mohamed Youssef
• Minister of Justice and Religious Affairs: Abdelkader Hamada Selma
• Minister of Culture: Khadija Hamdi (N)
• Ministre des Transports: Babiya Chiia
• Minister Counsellor of the Presidency for Europe: Mohamed Sidati
• Minister Counsellor of the Presidency for the Asian Countries: Malainine Sadik
• Minister Counsellor of the Presidency for the Arab Countries: Ahmedou Soueilim
• Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Latin America: El Haj Ahmed (N)
• Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Africa: Mohamed Yeslem Beyssat (N)
• Secretary of State for Youth and Sports: Mohamed Mouloud Mohamed Fadel (N)
• Secretary of State for Hydraulics and the Environment: Abda Cheij (N)
• Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Employment: Ahmed Vall Mohamed Yahdih (N)
• Secretary of State for Social Assistance and Women's Emancipation: Mahfouda Mohamed Rahal
• Director of Protocol: Habiboullah Mohamed Kori (N)
  
• Secretary-General of the Presidency: Daf Mohamed Fadel
• Secretary-General of the Government: Moulay Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed

Source: ARSO, where you can also get links to previous government lineups and some info on previous postings of some of the members.

Note new ministry for population of the Liberated Territories, meaning the parts of Western Sahara held by Polisario. Some Moroccan media had a brief panic about this a year or so back, that Polisario was going to try to establish more permanent settlements east of the Wall. If so, that's hardly a step towards war, whatever the sabre-rattling at the Congress may have implied. But at the same time, it is a terrible diplomatic inconvenience for Morocco which wants to pretend that these areas are a no-go buffer zone, rather than actual Polisario-held territory. At present, the population in these areas is almost entirely bedouin families from Western Sahara (i. e, the camps) and Mauritania, traders, families and others going from Mauritania to/from the camps, plus something like six thousand Polisario soldiers dug in along the Wall and patrolling the desert. If I'm not mistaken, there's a sort of a semi-permanent village at Bir Lehlou, Polisario's symbolic temporary capital, where there is also military infrastructure; and Tifariti -- the congress, festival and parade venue of choice -- has got quite a bit of infrastructure in place, even if the population has so far been only military and passers-through. The camps themselves, of course, are very mobile: packing up a tent takes twenty minutes, and the upside of being a destitute refugee is that you don't have a lot of things to lug around. Instead, the tricky part will be supplies -- food and water -- and security, with landmines all around, and 100,000 enemy soldiers a stone's throw away.