Child malnutrition is rising in the Tindouf camps, while humanitarian agencies still plan for 90,000 people using a figure no comprehensive census has verified. A United Nations draft report warns that food insecurity affects an estimated 80% of the camp population, and assistance doesn't fully meet household needs. People who need food, medicine and vaccines remain represented in the aid system by a planning estimate.
Aid by Estimate
UNHCR, UNICEF, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) continue to assist refugees in five camps near Tindouf. Agencies can't reliably plan food, health, nutrition and education services without information about who lives there and how many people need support. UNHCR says it will keep using 90,000 as its planning figure until it conducts a full registration exercise.
The funding gap is stark. The 2025 Sahrawi Refugee Response Plan received $57.9 million (MAD 532.7 million) of the $104 million (MAD 956.8 million) requested. The 2026-2027 plan seeks $179.3 million (MAD 1.65 billion), including $89.6 million (MAD 824.3 million) for 2026. By June 30, the plan had received $15.2 million (MAD 139.8 million), or 17% of the amount requested for 2026.
Guterres' report says acute malnutrition, stunting and anemia among children have continued to rise, raising concern about a possible food emergency. Around 30,000 children under five remain at risk because disruptions have hit routine immunization programs. The camps' education system is vulnerable, too. It relies heavily on refugee volunteer teachers. The WFP works with the Algerian Red Crescent and other partners to provide food, but insufficient funding leaves families' needs unmet, the report says.
A Census Caught in Politics
The United Nations has repeatedly called for registration, but nobody has verified the camp population's size and composition. Morocco has called for registration, while Algeria and the Polisario Front have opposed or resisted those calls. The dispute isn't an abstract argument over numbers: agencies need population information to plan assistance, while political actors contest who should be counted and how.
At a 2015 UN discussion, Morocco's representative said the international community should be able to establish “the number and origin” of people in the camps. Former Polisario officials Hamada El Bihi and Mustafa Salma alleged that the population figures were inflated. They argued that only about 20% of residents are of Sahrawi origin, with the remainder allegedly including Tuareg from Niger, Mali, Chad, Libya and Algeria. Those claims remain allegations, not a verified census.
UN records have repeated the same unresolved condition. A 2006 report said agencies had reduced assistance to 90,000 beneficiaries and would use that figure for planning “until a comprehensive registration exercise.” A 2009 document said accurate statistics were unavailable and assistance targeted 90,000 of the most vulnerable people. UN documents in 2017 and 2018 again described 90,000 as a planning figure pending registration. UNHCR stressed that it wasn't a verified population count.
Political Proposals, Immediate Needs
Several speakers before the UN Special Committee on Decolonization again called for registration in 2026. Côte d'Ivoire raised concerns about conditions in the camps and called for a census; Chile said UNHCR should be permitted to register the population. Meanwhile, agencies must plan food, medicine, vaccines and education support without a comprehensive database showing residents' numbers and individual profiles.
Guterres urged the parties to negotiate in good faith, saying the humanitarian and political dimensions can't be separated from protecting the population. His report calls for renewed confidence-building measures. Staffan de Mistura, his Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, proposed voluntary “familiarization visits” for individual Sahrawi refugees to Laayoune and Dakhla, where they could see conditions in Morocco firsthand and learn about Morocco's Autonomy Plan. The Secretary-General said the plan can represent “the most feasible outcome” to the dispute. But the immediate arithmetic remains plain: aid is based on an unverified estimate, and the latest response plan had received only 17% of its 2026 request by June 30.