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54 CHAPTER 1anti-French sentiments in check. A third important party was the Association dela Jeunesse Mauritanienne, a group of young évolués headed by Ahmed BabaMiské, which took a radical stance towards independence from France, and wasdecisively pan Arab in ideology. The AJM was divided on the question ofMauritanian existence, with a majority of its members ultimately opting for theMoroccan side. Both the Moroccan and the French camps tried to convince thechiefs and religious leaders in Mauritania to join their side. The most importanttraditional chief to join the Moroccan camp was Mohamed Fall ould Oumeir,the Emir of Trarza, but most others remained in the French camp.The struggle did not stay on the level of propaganda and diplomacy. 85 In thelast months of 1956, the Istiqlâl organised an invasion force of approximately5,000 men. Part of this army consisted of officers and men of the Jaish li Tahrîral-Maghrebiyya or Armée de Libération Marocaine (ALM), the Moroccan LiberationArmy. The ALM was well equipped with sufficient personal weapons,mortars, field telephones and vehicles, and discipline was strong. Most of thefighters however were recruited locally among the Rgaybat from the Lgouacemclan. The Rgaybat are a Bidân tribe, famous for their camel-based pastoral life,whose pasture grounds stretch from Goulmime in Southern Morocco to theDraa valley, through the Seguiet El Hamra and Rio D’Oro or Spanish orWestern Sahara, southwards into Mauritania, and eastwards to Tindouf inAlgeria, and Taoudenit down to I-n-Dagouber in Mali. The Rgaybat had formedthe core of warriors around the famous Moroccan resistance fighter Maa AlAinine in the Draa valley and beyond. The last of their leaders had only surrenderedto France in 1934. Throughout the conflict of the 1950s, the Rgaybatwould play their own political game. In 1956, drought had hit the Lgouacempastures in Mauritania, forcing them to move up to their pastures in southernMorocco. The Rgaybat lived in hostile relations with most Bidân tribes in theSouthern part of Mauritania, who dominated Mauritanian political life, hencetheir resistance to the idea of Mauritanian independence. Furthermore, bordersbetween their pastures complicated their nomadic existence. Thus, while herdingtheir camels in southern Morocco in 1956, the Rgaybat joined the ALMforces.On 13 January 1957, the ALM Rgaybat forces invaded Mauritania, withAtar as their main goal. To get there, the ALM fighters had to cross the Spanishcolony of Seguiet El Hamra and Rio d’Oro. According to French sources, theSpanish authorities let the ALM pass for two reasons. First, they did not have85The following paragraphs are based on; Affaire politiques, Mauritanie, maintien del’ordre 1957/1958. ANSOM – 1affpol/2229; Affaires politiques, Mauritanie, administrationgénérale 1956-1958. ANSOM – 1affpol/2172. Both dossiers are underembargo until 2020. And on: Guillemin, J. 1982; de Boisboissel, A. 1963; Perrin, L.1957, CHEAM 2953; Perrin, L. 1958, CHEAM 2955.