Brahim Ghali

Biography

Born in Smara, Western Sahara on 16 September 1949 (although other sources claimed he was born in Bu Craa, Spanish Sahara), Gali joined the Spanish-led Nomadic troops in the late 1960s, being destined to Smara for administrative works. After several meetings with Mohamed Bassiri and other Sahrawis, they decided to create the AOLS in 1969, with Gali being the affiliation secretary of the organization. He participated in the AOLS demonstration held in El Aaiun on June 16, 1970, which passed to be known as the Zemla Intifada. Detained that same night by Spanish soldiers, he was sentenced to one year in prison for his political activities. He was freed in 1971, but was briefly detained again in 1972 for taking part in demonstrations. In 1973, he was one of the founders of the Polisario Front, and was elected as the first General Secretary of the movement on its constitutive congress. Alongside El Uali Mustapha Sayed, Gali led the El-Khanga raid, the first military action of the POLISARIO against a desert post of the Spanish Army, overrunning the position and gathering weapons and equipment. In 1974, as El Uali was elected as the new POLISARIO General Secretary, Gali passed to command the Sahrawi People's Liberation Army, it's military wing. On October 22, 1975, Gali, El Uali and Mahfoud Ali Beiba met General Federico Gómez de Salazar, the Spanish governor of the territory on the first official encounter between representatives of the Spanish government and the POLISARIO. Negotiations were broken shortly after, with Gali do not attending another meeting with Gómez de Salazar on October 29, while the Spanish government declared a curfew on El Aaiun. On 4 March 1976, he was designated as the Defense Minister of the first government of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, proclaimed in Bir Lehlou on February 27. He will remained in that post until 1989 when he was chosen as Commander-in-chief of the Second Military Region.