Western Sahara's Polisario names new leader
None
ALGIERS- Western Sahara's Polisario independence movement has elected a former ambassador as its new leader after the death of its chief, Mohammed Abdelaziz, who led the front through a war with Morocco and years of diplomatic struggle for self-determination.
Polisario began in the 1970s as a guerrilla front fighting for independence for a territory the Sahrawi people claim as their own since Morocco took over most of the region after the end of Spanish colonial rule.
Abdelaziz died in May aged 68 after more than three decades as leader of the Sahrawi Polisario Front and president of its self-declared Sahrawi Republic, with its base in southern Algeria since a ceasefire in 1991.
