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12:25 p. M.
Monday 16 November 2020
(AFP)
The Moroccan army fired “in response to provocations” by Polisario fighters along the wall that separates them in the disputed Western Sahara, the Moroccan News Agency reported, based on an informal forum of the Royal Armed Forces.
“Since November 13, 2020, the Polisario militia has carried out provocations by firing along the security wall without causing any human or material damage to the ranks of the Royal Armed Forces,” the agency said, according to the Facebook page. of the forum.
He added: “In compliance with orders not to tolerate any such provocation, the brave elements of the Royal Armed Forces responded firmly to these provocations, leaving a vehicle with weapons to the east of the security fence in the Mahbas area. “.
The Mahbas lies to the north of the “defensive wall”, which stretches for about 2,700 km, which has separated Moroccan forces from the Polisario fighters since the late 1980s, and is surrounded by the buffer zone and is five kilometers long. wide on both sides.
The Polisario, backed by Algeria, spoke this Sunday of “the continuous escalation of the fighting” in the extreme south of the region, without giving details, and stressed that “thousands of volunteers” are being recruited to join the Saharawi armed forces.
It is difficult to verify reports of armed confrontations from independent sources and it is difficult to reach the affected areas given their geographical location. For its part, Rabat does not allow journalists to move freely around the region, even during normal hours.
The Sahrawi Arab Republic, which the Polisario declared its establishment in Algeria since 1976, declared a “state of war” in response to the operation carried out by the Moroccan army on Friday to reopen the Guerguerat border crossing, after its “obstruction” of its passage through members of the Polisario, according to Rabat.
Traffic resumed on Saturday, along this vital route for the transport of goods to Mauritania and the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, according to Moroccan and Mauritanian sources.
The Polisario considered the operation carried out by Morocco to end the ceasefire agreement signed 30 years ago, while the Kingdom affirmed its “strong attachment to maintaining the ceasefire.”
Morocco controls eighty percent of the area of Western Sahara and proposes to grant it autonomy under its sovereignty, while the Polisario Front demands its independence.
It witnessed an armed conflict that lasted until the 1991 ceasefire between Morocco, which annexed it in 1975, and the Polisario.
For decades, the United Nations has sponsored efforts to find a political solution to end the conflict in Western Sahara. But the negotiations, in which Algeria and Mauritania also participate, have been suspended since 2019, after resuming in 2018.
