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The Polisario Front has fought an armed conflict with the Moroccan authorities since Spain withdrew from the region
The Polisario Front said a three-decade ceasefire in the disputed Western Sahara region ended on Friday after an operation by Moroccan forces in a volatile border region.
“The war has started, and the Moroccan side has violated the ceasefire agreement,” SADR Foreign Minister Mohamed Salem Ould Salek told the French news agency, declared by the Polisario.
Ould Salek described the Moroccan operation as “aggression” and said that “the Sahrawi forces are engaged in legitimate self-defense and are responding to the Moroccan forces.”
Rabat announced on Friday that its forces began to carry out an operation in an uninhabited area of the southern border of Western Sahara, in order to put an end to the “provocations” of the Polisario Front in support of the independence of the region in dispute.
Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani said that the intervention of his country’s forces in Guerguerat, south of Western Sahara, aims to create a separation wall that forms a security cordon for the flow of goods and people to through the buffer zone to link Morocco with Mauritania.
El Othmani added, in a series of tweets on Twitter, that the Moroccan move is aimed at restoring freedom of movement.
And the Sahara News Agency said that Morocco opened three new holes in the military wall, in the Guerguerat region, to attack peaceful protesters, adding that the People’s Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Polisario, had responded to what the agency described it as assault, without providing details on the method of response.
The Polisario Front warned on Monday that it would consider the ceasefire agreement concluded three decades ago with Morocco null and void if Rabat pushes military or civilian elements into the buffer zone.
Since last month, Sahrawi protesters have stopped the movement in Guerguerat, which links Morocco and Mauritania.
Rabat said it would open the main road linking Western Sahara with Mauritania, which has been closed since October 21 by supporters of the Polisario Front.
The Moroccan army announced that it cordoned off the area early Friday, in preparation for the implementation of an operation aimed at restoring transport traffic.
The army emphasized that it will not resort to the use of weapons except in “legitimate defense” situations.
Morocco’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement: “The Polisario Front and its militias have infiltrated the region since October 21, carrying out acts of robbery, blocking roads, and continuing to harass UN mission observers. “.
On 5 November, some two hundred Moroccan truck drivers said they had suffered difficult conditions on the Mauritanian side of the desert border and asked the competent authorities in Rabat and Nouakchott to help them return home after the “Polisario fighters” they will cut off their path.
Morocco’s Foreign Ministry said it must deal with the movements of Polisario fighters, following a series of calls for calm by the ministry and the United Nations peace mission in the region.
A senior official in the kingdom’s foreign ministry told the Reuters news agency that Morocco would erect sand barriers to secure the road.
The outskirts of Western Sahara are on the African coast of the Atlantic Ocean, and since the exodus of Spanish colonialism from the region, Morocco and the Polisario Front have challenged sovereignty over it.
Rabat controls 80 percent of the region, with its phosphate reserves and fish stocks.
As for the Polisario forces, most of them are stationed in sparsely populated areas of the Sahara and in refugee camps in neighboring Algeria, the main supporter of the Polisario Front that aspires to the independence of the region.
The Kingdom of Morocco says that Western Sahara is an integral part of its territory, and the Kingdom is not opposed to the establishment of self-government in the region, as long as its sovereignty remains subordinate to Morocco.
As for the Polisario Front, it is calling for a referendum on self-determination in the region, as stipulated in the ceasefire agreement concluded in 1991.
UN peacekeepers have been responsible for securing a buffer zone between the two parties since a United Nations-sponsored ceasefire agreement went into effect in 1991.
What are the details of the Western Sahara problem?
Western Sahara is a vast region in northwestern Africa, covering an area of approximately 266,000 square kilometers.
It is estimated that the population of around half a million is distributed among the main cities of the region, which were subjected to Spanish colonialism between 1884 and 1976, and after their departure, sovereignty over it was contested by Morocco and the Polisario.
The Front intensified its operations and instigated demonstrations calling for independence, while Morocco and Mauritania appealed to the International Court of Justice.
On October 16, 1975, Morocco announced its organization of the “Green March” towards the Sahara region, and in January 1976 it was announced that the “SADR” would be established with the support of Algeria.
Beginning in the eighties of the last century, Morocco established a sand barrier around the cities of Smara, El Aaiún and Boujdour to isolate the phosphate-rich desert areas and the main desert cities, and make this wall the most desert land. important safe from Polisario attacks.
Morocco’s position was reinforced by Libya’s abandonment since 1984 of supporting the Polisario and Algeria’s concern over its internal crisis.
