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War has broken out, the Moroccan side has annihilated the cease-fire agreement, says Mohamed Salem Ould Salek, who is acting Foreign Minister in the Sahara Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) declared by the Polisario.
The Moroccan government in the capital Rabat, in turn, says troops have been deployed to “stop the blockade” of trucks traveling between Mauritania and Moroccan-controlled areas of Western Sahara.
The government says it wants to “restore the free movement of civil and commercial traffic.”
Secretary General of the Polisarios Brahim Ghali has written to the head of the UN, António Guterres, asking that the Security Council “intervene as soon as possible to put an end to this aggression against our people and our territory.”
“This will also mean the end of the ceasefire and the beginning of a new war in the region,” Brahim Ghali said in a statement.
Antonio Guterres.
Photo: Michael Kappeler
Guterres, for his part, expresses “deep concern” about the development and its possible consequences, says the spokesman for the UN chief.
Morocco took control of Western Sahara in the 1970s, when colonial power Spain abandoned what had been called the Spanish Sahara.
The Polisario independence movement started a guerrilla war that lasted until 1991, when the UN negotiated peace and sent peacekeeping forces there.
Today, Western Sahara is in practice divided into two parts with a UN-controlled buffer zone between them. Morocco controls about eight-tenths of the area, including those with significant natural resources.
There has long been a stalemate in attempts to end the conflict, and now the Polisario says the 1991 ceasefire agreement has been overstated.
According to Mohamed Salem Ould Salek, his own forces are “involved in legitimate self-defense” and respond militarily to the actions of Moroccan troops.
Rabat, for its part, affirms that the Polisario forces in the buffer zone provoked the Moroccan military operation through “acts of bandits, traffic blockades and constant harassment” by the military observers of the UN force Minurso .
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Morocco Nasser Bourita insists that Rabat’s actions are moderate, proportionate and have not affected any civilians.
This is not an offensive action, he says.
Algeria, which supports the search for the independence of the Polisario, calls for accountability, but also condemns the “serious violations” of the ceasefire agreement and calls for an “immediate cessation” of military action.
Mauritania is calling on Morocco and the Polisario to respect the ceasefire agreement, and the country’s Foreign Ministry calls on “all parties to act with moderation.”
