Sidi Mohammed Daddach (; born 1957) is a Sahrawi human rights activist imprisoned for 24 years. He is often called "North African Mandela" or "Sahrawi Mandela".
Biography
In 1973 he joined the Polisario Front, the Western Sahara national liberation movement. In early 1976, as the Moroccan & Mauritanian troops invaded Western Sahara, Daddach fled with some friends trying to reach Tindouf to join the Polisario Front troops (Sahrawi People's Liberation Army), but their jeep was gunned & intercepted by Moroccan troops near Amgala. After two years of imprisonment (first in a military base in Marrakesh, then in a subterranean cell), he was forced to join the Moroccan Army. and other human rights organizations also called for his release. In 1994, his death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment,
In 2002, Daddach was awarded the Rafto Prize for his efforts, and after some difficulties obtaining a passport, he was finally able to go to collect the prize in Norway, where he also saw his mother, Enguia Bakay Lahbib, for the first time since 1975.
On 29 April 2013, he was one of the nine Sahrawis injured during demonstrations in El Aaiun. Daddach needed hospital attention for a wound in one of his knees.
See also
- History of Western Sahara
- Mohamed Elmoutaoikil
- Aminatou Haidar
- Ali Salem Tamek
- Brahim Dahane