Background
Edouard Moha was born in 1943, in a village in the western district of the country near Smara, of parents from a sect of the Reguibat tribe.
Edouard Moha was born in 1943, in a village in the western district of the country near Smara, of parents from a sect of the Reguibat tribe.
Educated in Morocco and France.
As founder-president of the resistance movement he set up headquarters in Rabat in January 1971. He had to maintain a low profile in his first year and then prepared for his big chance at the OAU summit. All the time he had been frustrated by the restrictions on his operations so that when he gained recognition he realised he need no longer be totally dependent upon Moroccan goodwill. On November 28, 1972, he issued a statement in Rabat repudiating as false the population figures for the Spanish Sahara presented to the UN by the Spanish government. He contended that refugees in neighbouring countries should be included in the total. On January 1973 he sent an appeal to Pope Paul VI urging his intervention on the grounds that the authorities in Spanish Sahara were operating “under the cover of the Church of Madrid” to persecute Moslems.
In March 1973 he moved his headquarters to Algiers, claiming that his Moroccan passport had been withdrawn and conditions had been made impossible for him to operate in Rabat. He launched an appeal in April 1973 to the “progressive youth” of Arab countries with a view to creating an international brigade to help "Moslem peoples oppressed by Franco”. He also called for joint military action by Sahara’s neighbouring states Algeria, Mauritania and Morocco to end the colonialist system.
Militant nationalist without any extremist ideology but with a burning desire to “expel Spain from Africa”. Speaking fluent French and Spanish, he has been an active propagandist, seeking support first in Morocco and then in Algeria. He first made his mark at the OAU summit in June 1972 and then won recognition and support from several African countries, which enabled him to move left geographically and politically to set up headquarters at Algiers in March 1973 for the Blue Men, Ar-Rijal az-Zurq.