Chahid El Hafed, January 25, 2026
The Association of Families of Sahrawi Prisoners and Disappeared (AFAPREDESA) most strongly condemns the retaliatory measures adopted by the Moroccan occupation authorities against the family of Sahrawi human rights defender Brika Bahi (32 years old). Since March 2025, the authorities have suspended his mother’s social allowance, explicitly conditioning its reinstatement on Brika Bahi renouncing his peaceful activism or being expelled from his mother’s home. This practice constitutes clear economic blackmail and collective punishment, forms of repression expressly prohibited by international humanitarian law and human rights conventions.
For many years, Brika Bahi has been dedicated to documenting human rights violations, particularly those related to discrimination against Sahrawis and the confiscation of their lands. A prominent example is his grandmother’s family land, seized by the Moroccan army, despite having belonged to the family for generations. His testimonies, widely disseminated on social media, have provoked systematic repression against him.
On February 28, 2025, while preparing to celebrate the birth of his second child, Brika Bahi was abducted in El Aaiún by security force agents. After being taken outside the city, he was subjected to torture and severe ill-treatment: forced nudity, tight handcuffs, stress positions, repeated beatings, death threats, and humiliating touching aimed at psychologically breaking him due to his views.
The persecution of the Bahi family is not an isolated incident, but illustrates a methodical pattern of repression in occupied Western Sahara:
• Collective Punishment and Family Blackmail: The suspension of the pension, accompanied by direct pressure to expel Brika Bahi from the family home or force him into exile, is part of a deliberate strategy to extend repression to the relatives of activists.
• Torture and Impunity: The abuses inflicted on Brika Bahi add to many other documented cases. Despite precise identifications of the responsible agents, impunity remains total, encouraging the repetition of violations.
• Criminalization of Freedom of Expression: By conditioning the reinstatement of the pension on the abandonment of activism, the authorities confirm their goal: to silence any voice peacefully advocating for Sahrawi self-determination, based on repressive provisions.
Brika Bahi’s mother, employed since 1988, depends entirely on this salary. The head of the occupation authority in El Aaiún, Abdeslam Beikkerat, told her unequivocally: “Have your son renounce fighting for the cause of the Sahrawi people, or you will never get your salary back.”
Watch Brika Bahi’s interview with journalist Héctor Bujari Santorum, on 01/23/2026:
https://nuevarevolucion.es/marruecos-corta-el-salario-a-la-madre-de-brika-bahi-como-represalia
Faced with this escalation, AFAPREDESA urges:
• The United Nations Secretary-General and the Security Council: to demand the immediate and unconditional reinstatement of Brika Bahi’s mother’s pension; to extend without delay the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to include a robust human rights monitoring component.
• The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): to conduct an independent investigation into this case of blackmail and the discriminatory system against Sahrawis, with immediate and unimpeded access to the territory, blocked since 2015.
• The European Union, the United States, and Morocco’s partners: to publicly condemn these practices and ensure the full enjoyment of all their human rights by Sahrawis, including the right to self-determination of the Sahrawi people.
• International human rights defense organizations: to urgently address this case, document these violations, and maintain sustained public pressure.
AFAPREDESA reaffirms that repression, torture, and economic blackmail will never break the determination of the Sahrawi people to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence.