UNCOVERING U$ IMPERIALISM'S NEXT FRONT IN AFRICA

Attack In Western Sahara Complicates US Regional Strategy – Analysis

 December 19, 2023 

By Published by the Foreign Policy Research Institute

By Michael Walsh

(FPRI) — Over the last few months, a new discourse has emerged on Western Sahara. Following the Polisario attack on Smara, novel concerns have been raised that the Polisario Front and its state supporters (e.g., Algeria and South Africa) are undermining US interests. Some analysts have argued that recent events demand the designation of the Polisario Front as a terrorist organization and Algeria as a state sponsor of terrorism. These claims are strongly disputed by the Polisario Front and its supporters.

To make sense of these developments, it is important to understand what is happening behind the scenes in US-Algeria and US-South Africa relations. When viewed through that lens, new competitive reasons come into focus for the US government and its allies to support the consolidation of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. These contextual shifts not only threaten the existence of the Polisario Front and the independence of the Sahrawi people: They could create tensions in US-Algeria and US-South Africa relations that other state actors, like China, Iran, or Russia, could exploit. At the same time, there are also contextual shifts pulling in the opposite direction. The most important is a recent improvement in US-Algeria relations. This is being spearheaded by the United States Embassy Algiers and the National Security Council.

The White House recognizes that this presents a challenging strategic landscape. It accepts that there is a need for a change in the status quo and views the intensification of the United Nations political process in the Western Sahara as the best possible option for trying to do so. This is despite the fact that it will create tensions in US-Morocco relations.

Background

There have been significant shifts in the regional context of the longstanding conflict between Morocco and the Polisario Front, all of which have increased concerns in Washington. First, there is a widespread perception that Russia’s relations with Algeria and South Africa have grown stronger since the invasion of Ukraine. Combined with the expansion of BRICS’s framework, this has raised questions about the shared preference of the two countries for a new world order. There are concerns about the role that both governments are believed to have played in the suspension of Israel’s observer status at the African Union and their relations with Iran and Palestinian militant groups, especially in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel. In Western Sahara, the Polisario attack on Smara has heightened concerns about their sponsorship of the Polisario Front in an escalating conflict with an American ally that is resulting in civilian casualties on both sides.

As a consequence, there is a perception among some analysts that Algeria and South Africa are undermining US interests. The White House is working hard to change those perceptions. US Embassy Algiers sees cracks in the strategic relationship between Algeria and Russia that it wishes to exploit. It also recognizes the risk of pushing Algiers closer to China, Iran, and Russia if it overtly supports the consolidation of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. The Biden Administration is therefore searching for an approach that maximizes U.S. interests. The Moroccan government fears that will come at the expense of its own interests.

Assessment of Key Players

For the Polisario Front, this shift in the background context carries important implications for the future of their armed struggle for an independent state in Western Sahara. Among members of Congress, there has at times been a desire to impose costs on Algeria and South Africa for undermining US regional interests. For Algeria and South Africa, Sahrawi nationalism provides a valuable platform to demonstrate global leadership on anti-colonialism and anti-apartheid politics. 

For the US government, consolidating Moroccan sovereignty would deprive Algeria and South Africa of a foreign policy priority. However, it would also risk pushing Algiers and Pretoria toward major power competitors. Consequently, the Biden Administration is trying to resist the pressure to use Western Sahara as a platform to impose consequences on Algeria and South Africa. 

Policy Options

For Washington, there exists a non-exclusive set of policy interventions that might prove useful in the pursuit of the consolidation of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. It could designate the Polisario Front as a terrorist organization, and then consider state-sponsor designations for Algeria and South Africa. The United States and its allies could increase intelligence sharing regarding the Polisario Front with Morocco, and transfer more advanced counter-insurgency capabilities to them. The US government could pressure African partner countries to withdraw diplomatic recognition of the Sahrawi Democratic Republic. It could even terminate South Africa’s beneficiary status under the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

Beltway analysts have already expressed support for the designation of the Polisario Front as a terrorist organization in the aftermath of the Hamas and Smara attacks. This stands in sharp contrast to the Biden administration’s preferred approach: the intensification of the United Nations political process “to achieve an enduring and dignified solution” in Western Sahara.  

Americans Calculations

For the Biden administration, decision-making on Western Sahara requires the careful consideration of political realities that pull in multiple directions. For example, the consolidation of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara would advance the perceived national interests of Morocco and Israel, and a large number of Americans believe that the US government “should take the interests of allies into account, even if it means making compromises.”

President Joe Biden made a commitment to protect the liberal international order during his campaign for office. The liberal international order demands that “international law constrains the action of states.” The international law position is that Western Sahara is a non-decolonized territory under the military occupation of Morocco, and the Polisario Front is the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people. However, Biden also made a commitment to “standing shoulder to shoulder with our allies and key partners once more.” Moreover, there is a widely held perception that the maintenance of the liberal international order depends on “America’s system of alliances.”

While some members of Congress may desire to impose serious consequences on Algeria and South Africa, some also appear to have a desire to “recommit the United States to the pursuit of a referendum on self-determination for the Sahrawi people of Western Sahara.” Earlier this year, the White House signaled a pragmatic shift toward engaging with “the region in ways consistent with our laws so that we can continue to make sure that the region is safe.” As a consequence, any foreign policy decision-making on Western Sahara will almost certainly take into consideration the impact on national security priority missions, including major-power competition, and the protection of the overseas military posture of the United States and its allies in North Africa and the Sahel.

It’s difficult to say whether the Biden administration will make a radical move to support the consolidation of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. It prefers to achieve a negotiated settlement through the United Nations political process instead. That reality will weigh heavy on the minds of the Polisario Front, its state sponsors, and the Sahrawi people.

Perceptions Abroad

A number of states benefit from an American policy intervention to support the consolidation of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara—specially Morocco. Relatedly, Israel considers the normalization of relations with Morocco to be in the national interest. The consolidation of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara would remove a significant tension that exists in US-Morocco relations. That, in turn, mitigates the risk that the US government would withdraw its recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, which was a precondition of the normalization of Morocco-Israel relations.

Israel considers observer status in the African Union to be in its national interest. The termination of the African Union membership of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic would reduce the number of African Union members opposed to the restoration of that status. It also would serve as a retaliation for prior actions taken against its national interests by Algeria and South Africa.

China, Iran, and Russia likely would consider an American policy intervention to support the consolidation of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara as a valuable opportunity to try to drive a wedge into US-Algeria and US-South Africa relations, among others.

Whether they would be beneficiaries is another matter. In a world of great-power competition, overlapping contingencies, and shifting global norms, some state actors who would expect themselves to be beneficiaries probably would, in fact, become casualties. That includes the US government, which would sacrifice considerable moral power in the process of implementing such a policy intervention. That will weigh heavy on the minds of the Biden administration and members of Congress.

File photo of US and Moroccan troops in a training exercise. Photo Credit: U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Joseph Atiyeh

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a non-partisan organization that seeks to publish well-argued, policy-oriented articles on American foreign policy and national security priorities.

• About the author: Michael Walsh is a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Africa Program.
• Source: This article was published by FPRI

Founded in 1955, FPRI (http://www.fpri.org/) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization devoted to bringing the insights of scholarship to bear on the development of policies that advance U.S. national interests and seeks to add perspective to events by fitting them into the larger historical and cultural context of international politics.

WW3.0

The Latin American Parliament (Parlatino)

 Addresses Armed Conflict in Western Sahara

Polisario Front's soldiers, Western Sahara, Nov. 19, 2020 | 

Photo: Twitter/ @ed_peninsula

Published 27 November 20

"We join the concerns expressed by the international community and offer our vocation of dialogue and good offices," the Latin American Parliament said.

The Latin American Parliament (Parlatino) supported Friday international calls for a "political, lasting and just" solution to the conflict between Morocco and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), following weeks of military encounters.

Polisario Front Declares War on Morocco

"We hope that the work of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), and the commitment of the Kingdom of Morocco, and other actors such as the Polisario Front, Algeria, and Mauritania, will continue in the search for an agreement that implies a realistic, viable and lasting political solution to the situation in Western Sahara." Parlatino representatives stressed.

"From the Latin American and Caribbean Parliament, we join the concerns expressed by the international community and offer our vocation of dialogue and good offices,"

SADR declared "a state of war" early this month after the Moroccan government repressed a demonstration of Sahrawi activists in the bordering zone of Guerguerat.

SAHARA LIBRE ���� �� ✊�� We will not be silenced. My people, the Saharawi people of Western Sahara WILL be liberated from the occupation and colonial archaic actions of the Moroccan regime. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!! #FreeWesternSahara #AfricasLastColony #WesternSahara #BoycottMorocco pic.twitter.com/AOUdxXOFR3— Sahara trending (@TrendingSahara) November 27, 2020

SADR ambassador to Panama Sidahmed Darbal declared that the Moroccan army invaded the Guerguerat strip to unblock the road it illegally uses for land communication with Mauritania, thus violating the agreement to demilitarize the area and provoking an immediate military response from the Polisario Front.

Meanwhile, countries such as Russia, Algeria, South Africa, Germany, Turkey, Italy, and Cuba demand the application of UN resolutions that call for the right to self-determination of the Saharawi people.

Morocco is a permanent observer member of Parlatino since April 25, 2018.

Sahrawis determined to embark on new stage in their sacred struggle

SPS 28/11/2020 - 


Havana (Cuba), 28 November 2020 (SPS) - The president of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), Brahim Ghali, participated, at the invitation of Cuba's Communist Youth Union, in the "Pioneering Ideas" event held Havana, where he put forward the determination of Western Sahara people to enter into a new stage of their sacred and legitimate fight.

The president of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and secretary general of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, was invited by the Communist Youth Union of Cuba to participate by videoconference at the "Pioneering Ideas" event organized in Havana, said the Saharawi news agency SPS.

At this event dedicated to both Africa and the Middle East and to the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, marking the 4th anniversary of his death, President Ghali expressed his thanks to the Cuban youth and to all those who stand in solidarity with the legitimate struggle of the Saharawi people.

The Saharawi President informed the participants of the aggression launched by Morocco on 13 November against defenseless Saharawi civilians, who were peacefully demonstrating in front of the El-Guerguerat illegal breach.

"This is a violation of the international law and the ceasefire agreement signed with the Polisario Front under the auspices of the United Nations."

Western Sahara's leader added that "this irresponsible position left the Saharawi people no choice but to resume the armed struggle against Moroccan occupation forces." 

Solidarity with Sahrawi people: Algerian Journalists’ Association created in Algiers

SPS 28/11/2020 - 08:26


Algiers, 28 November 2020 (SPS) - The Solidarity National Association of Algerian Journalists with Sahrawi people’s struggle for independence was created Wednesday in Algiers.

Operated under the name of "Network of Algerian journalists in solidarity with the Sahrawi people," the association aims to fight against media blackout imposed by Morocco on the situation in Western Sahara, particularly after the resumption of armed actions last November 13 because of the aggressions by the Moroccan occupation army.

The association also seeks to supervise and direct the efforts of Algerian journalists in solidarity with the Sahrawi cause.

The strategy of the said association also includes the organization of conferences and symposiums to publicize the rights of the Sahrawi people, the establishment of relations with other associations for the development of content to support the struggle of the Sahrawi people, in addition to cooperative relations between the Algerian and Sahrawi media.

Aimed at enlightening world public opinion on the legitimacy of the rights of the Sahrawi people, the relations between Algerian journalists and their foreign colleagues in solidarity with the Saharawi cause, the association's action plan also includes "the creation of a non-governmental organization to advocate for the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination and independence." (SPS)

062/SPS/APS

French MP holds his country responsible for military tension in Western Sahara

SPS 27/11/2020 



Paris (France) November 26, 2020 (SAPS) - French deputy and the chairman of Western Sahara Study Group at French National Assembly, Mr. Jean-Paul Lecoq, has called the attention of his country’s foreign minister about the ongoing tension in Western Sahara, after Morocco violated the ceasefire agreement.

Questioning French foreign minister, MP Locoq held his country’s government responsible for the ongoing escalation in Western Sahara, criticizing France’s inaction to push for the referendum on self-determination, as being a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a friend of Morocco.

The French deputy denounced France’s silence on the ongoing human rights violations committed by the Moroccan Kingdom in occupied Western Sahara, including of which the cases of torture against the Saharawi political prisoners.

He, in the same context, criticized France for ignoring the repeated calls for allowing the MINURSO to monitor human rights situation in the occupied territories of Western Sahara. (SPS)

089/090/T

https://www.spsrasd.info/news/en

A Conflict That Time Forgot

INTISSAR FAKIR
Rising tensions between Morocco and the Polisario Front come at the worst time for parties to the Western Sahara conflict.

November 24, 2020



On November 13, a standoff over access to the Guergarat border crossing between the Western Sahara* and Mauritania broke a nearly three-decade ceasefire in the Western Sahara conflict between Rabat and the Polisario Front. Morocco says it fired on Polisario fighters in retaliation for what Rabat called their days-long blockade of the road, holding up some 200 trucks and threatening trade with Mauritania. Polisario, in turn, characterized the situation before the incident as locals peacefully protesting against Morocco’s presence in the area.

Parts of the road toward the crossing are under Morocco’s de facto control, while others fall in the thin buffer zone controlled by the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara. There is concern that the episode could reignite armed conflict between Morocco and Polisario. This would add to instability in North Africa and the Sahel after the war in Libya and the insurgency in Mali.

Following the skirmish, Polisario pointed out that Morocco’s actions violated the ceasefire and the group’s secretary general, Ibrahim Gali, declared war on the kingdom. Meanwhile, Morocco has given no sign that it seeks to escalate the situation. The Moroccan government framed its intervention as necessary to guarantee the movement of people and goods across the only access road to Mauritania. In that regard, Morocco received support from many traditional allies, including the Gulf monarchies. However, European partners, France, and the European Union have been cautious, indicating only tacit support for Morocco’s actions. That was likely to avoid alienating Algeria, the Polisario’s main backer, and to not antagonize activist groups in Europe that have grown more vocal about Morocco’s occupation of, and human rights violations in, the Western Sahara.

While the Guergarat crossing has long been a source of tension between the two sides, the strategically important road is not under complete Moroccan control, something that Rabat would like to change. But for many Sahrawis, what took place was a consequence of their broader disappointment over the failure of Morocco and Polisario, as well as the international community, to resolve the long-running Western Sahara conflict. The dispute over the former Spanish colony has been ongoing since 1975, when Morocco annexed the area ahead of Spain’s withdrawal.

Morocco and Polisario engaged in armed conflict between 1976 and 1991, when the United Nations brokered a peace agreement. This was based on the promise that a political process would follow—an integral part of which was a referendum of the Saharawi people to determine the territory’s fate. However, disagreements over who should be polled and from where provoked an impasse. In recent years, Morocco has abandoned the agreement to hold a referendum and instead pushed forward a plan that would allow greater autonomy for the provinces that make up the Western Sahara.

Morocco has tended to portray the issue as being frozen, with the two sides remaining far apart. Rabat will only accept autonomy under Moroccan rule, while Polisario will only consent to full independence. Such entrenched views harden the status quo, which for Morocco represents an acceptable solution.

Algeria’s support for Polisario has had both philosophical and practical benefits, and makes it an indirect party to the conflict, with an important role. For decades, Algeria’s anti-colonial stance predisposed it to sympathize with the Sahrawis’ cause and it views the Western Sahara as a decolonization issue. But for Algiers, Polisario has also functioned as useful leverage in the tense Algerian relationship with Morocco. Morocco’s monarchy, on the other hand, continues to present the Western Sahara conflict as source of legitimacy and popularity—the great struggle uniting Moroccans. Furthermore, the dispute has not prevented it from developing the area as it would any other part of its territory, in fact more so.

Polisario’s willingness to declare a war against Morocco now probably indicates a desire to create momentum to resolve the Western Sahara issue due to the front’s own internal challenges and changes in Algeria. Polisario’s leadership is facing dissatisfaction inside and outside the refugee camps it controls in Algeria. The population that Polisario governs in Sahrawi camps and those supporting it within Moroccan-controlled territory have faced years of hardship waiting for a political resolution, but nothing that Polisario has done has brought this any closer. In addition, Algeria’s domestic circumstances have changed substantially over the past year and it is difficult to assess if its support for Polisario will remain the same indefinitely.

Morocco, likewise, might see a moment of opportunity to gain a greater advantage in the conflict. Already the country has moved to secure control over the Guergarat crossing, and to build a barrier through the narrow corridor that connects Morocco to Mauritania—an extension of the sand berm it had built to separate Moroccan-controlled areas from those under Polisario’s authority.

Whether Morocco’s action is legal is a daunting question on which the UN has yet to publicly speak. With the international community focused on combating the Covid-19 pandemic, general fatigue over the long-running Western Sahara conflict, and a rocky political transition taking place in the United States, Morocco may see an opening to pursue its agenda. If the Trump administration pushes for agreements between Arab states and Israel before leaving office, for example, Morocco might be tempted to go along with this if it leads to U.S. recognition of Moroccan control over the Western Sahara.

While armed conflict threatens to resume between the two sides, the region continues to struggle with the impact of Covid-19, the economic pressures it has generated for already ailing economies, and the social and political weaknesses it has highlighted. Morocco faces its own social and economic challenges that would make a conflict less than ideal. The Algerian government, in turn, is facing significant economic pressures because of diminishing oil and gas revenues, and a lack of legitimacy among a population calling for widespread reform. While in certain cases such problems could make conflict more probable, for Morocco and Algeria today the costs would outweigh the benefits—especially since both gain from the status quo. Meanwhile, the fate of the Sahrawi people remains in limbo.

So far, the situation is looking increasingly like the sort of low-level conflict that it was during the 1970s and 1980s. On November 15, gunfire was reported in a few spots along the sand berm. However, there has been little information from the Moroccan Army about the attacks. A Polisario spokesman, Ould Salek, announced that his group was mobilizing “thousands of volunteers.” Morocco has indicated that it would not shy away from responding. Meanwhile, the Algerian military released a statement last week urging both sides to show restraint, a fairly subdued response compared to past statements.

Still, the border incident—and the whole conflict—is a reminder of the dangers of the unresolved problem in the Western Sahara. It also highlights the extent of the dysfunction in the relationship between Morocco and Algeria, and the lack of security or political coordination among states across North Africa.

Women carrying Saharan flags take part in a demonstration in San Sebastian, Spain, to demand the end of Morocco's occupation in Western Sahara on Nov. 16, 2020.

(Gari Garaialde/Getty Images)

The Polisario Front announces the end of the ceasefire with Morocco
INTERNATIONAL 14 days ago REPORT

The Moroccan fence in the Guerguerat region, which sparked a severe crisis between Morocco and the Polisario


The leader of the Polisario Front, Ibrahim Ghali, issued a decree ending the commitment to the 1991 ceasefire agreement with Morocco, which could pave the way for a military confrontation between the two sides in the disputed Western Sahara.


In a statement carried by the Polisarios Sahara News Agency, today, Saturday, Ghali said that this comes in response to “Moroccos violation of the ceasefire and attacking civilian protesters in front of the buffer zone (Guerguerat).”


The statement called for “taking measures and measures related to implementing the requirements of a state of war,” and opening the door to “resuming fighting in defense of the legitimate rights of our people.”


The Polisario leader also condemned Morocco for “opening three other buffer zones on the Moroccan military fence,” considering that a “serious violation” of the military agreement sponsored by the United Nations between Rabat and the front calling for the independence of Western Sahara.


This comes one day after the Polisario government also described Moroccos move as a violation of the ceasefire.


Earlier in the day, Morocco said it had deployed forces in the buffer zone in response to the “provocation” of Polisario fighters, who had cut off the road to Guergarat, a gateway to neighboring Mauritania, since last October 21.


Morocco later announced that it had succeeded in securing the entire buffer zone.


Tensions have escalated in the region since 2016. The Front warned that the deployment of Moroccan forces would threaten the truce brokered by the United Nations in 1991.




The Polisario Front announced ending the peace agreement and preparing for war with Morocco

For three decades, the UN-monitored ceasefire has maintained a fragile peace in the disputed Western Sahara.


The situation worsened after Morocco deployed military engineers to expand its network of defensive walls to include the last stretch of the road across the Sahara to neighboring Mauritania.


Dozens of truck drivers were stranded for several days in Guergarat, the last stop currently controlled by Morocco on the road heading to the buffer zone guarded by the United Nations peacekeeping force (MINURSO), where the Polisario maintained a presence there.


The referendum on the future of the Sahara region has been postponed several times before, amid disagreements over the voter lists and the content of the referendum, and whether the referendum paper should include the word independence or only autonomy inside Morocco.


Why dispute about Carrots؟


Polisario spokesman Mohamed Salem Ould Salek said, “The road was not there when the peace agreement was signed in 1991. For the past three weeks, the Sahrawis have been organizing peaceful sit-ins to demand the closure of the illegal border crossing in Guergarat, in accordance with UN resolutions. And the pressure for the self-determination referendum, which was planned by the United Nations but has been repeatedly postponed. “


Hamdi Ould Errachid, mayor of the city of El-Ayoun, one of two regions established to administer the Moroccan-controlled areas of the region, replies, “Since the end of the eighties, Morocco has built a wall, which is a defensive measure protecting the Moroccan Sahara (from the infiltration of Polisario fighters).


“The entire area is closed, except for a loophole near Guerguerat that was not secured and that the Polisario took advantage of it by passing through Mauritanian territory,” he added.


“Morocco will fill this gap, making access to the region impossible.”


Do you is over cease-fire?


Polisario spokesman Mohamed Salem Ould Salek says, “Guerguerat is the last straw … it represents our aggression.”


He adds, “Sahrawi forces are engaged in legitimate self-defense and are responding to Moroccan forces that are trying to push the defensive wall that represents the line of contact” under the 1991 ceasefire.


And he declared it explicit: “The war has started, and the Moroccan side annihilated the ceasefire.”


The official of the Moroccan government in the region, Ould Errachid, said, “The actions of the Polisario are the real threat to the ceasefire. They are not new, but they are dangerous.”


He added: “What is happening is a threat. When you send civilians and armed people to a buffer zone, when the United Nations mission annoys MINURSO, and when it searches vehicles and prevents traffic, this is a threat.”


He stressed that Moroccos goal is “to maintain the ceasefire by preventing illegal interference” and “putting an end to provocations.”

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Youth yearning for independence fuel Western Sahara clashes

By ARITZ PARRA

PHTO ESSAY 1 of 18

Polisario Front soldiers during a shooting exercise, near Mehaires, Western Sahara, Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. For nearly 30 years, the vast territory of Western Sahara in the North African desert has existed in limbo, awaiting a referendum that was supposed to let the local Sahrawi people decide their future. On one side, the Polisario Front wants the territory to be independent, while Morocco claims the area for itself. 

(AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

MAHBAS REGION, Western Sahara (AP) — As a glowing sun sank behind the sandy barrier that cuts across the disputed territory of Western Sahara, Sidati Ahmed’s battalion launched two missiles that sizzled through the air and then followed with an artillery attack.

Within minutes, a barrage of mortar shells flew in the opposite direction, from Moroccan positions, landing with a thick column of smoke in the barren desert of what is known as Africa’s last colony.

“Low-intensity hostilities,” as a recent United Nations report describes them, have raged for the past year along the 2,700-kilometer (1,700-mile) berm — a barrier second in length only to the Great Wall of China that separates the part of Western Sahara that Morocco rules from the sliver held by the Polisario Front, which wants the territory to be independent. Both sides claim the area in its entirety.

For nearly 30 years this swath of North African desert about the size of Colorado — that sits on vast phosphate deposits, faces rich fishing grounds and is believed to have off-shore oil reserves — has existed in limbo, awaiting a referendum that was supposed to let the local Sahrawi people decide their future. Instead, as negotiations over who would be allowed to vote dragged on, Morocco tightened its control of the territory, which was a Spanish colony until 1975.

Last year, the Polisario Front announced that it would no longer abide by the 1991 cease-fire that ended its 16-year guerilla war with Morocco.

The decision was fueled by frustration among younger Sahrawi — many of whom were born in refugee camps in Algeria, have never lived in their ancestral homeland, and are tired of waiting for the U.N.-promised referendum.

“Everybody is ready for war,” said Ahmed, who spent more than half of his 32 years in Cuba before returning to enlist for battle when the truce ended last year.

“We are fed up. The only thing that is going to bring our homeland back to us is this,” Ahmed said pointing at his AK-47 weapon, as he stood on the front line in Mahbas. The region, at the crossroads of Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria, is where most of the exchanges of fire take place.


Sahrawi refugees stranded by decades old conflict

Ahmed is typical of a generation of Sahrawi youth, most of whom traveled abroad to study — from Spain to Libya — but returned to the camps to form families. And they’ve told their elders that they don’t want to die in exile, with no future to offer to their own children.

“Life abroad can be tempting,” said Omar Deidih, a baby-faced soldier and cybersecurity student who on a recent visit to the front line organized by the Polisario spoke to foreign reporters in fluent English. “But the most important thing is that we have fresh blood in this new phase of the struggle.”

The possibility, however remote, that clashes could escalate into a full-out regional war may be the Polisario’s only hope of drawing attention to a conflict with few known casualties in a vast but forgotten corner of the desert. Many in the camps feel that efforts to finally settle the status of Western Sahara have languished since Morocco proposed greater autonomy for the territory in 2004.

The front’s hopes for independence suffered a major blow last year when the U.S. in the waning days of the Trump administration backed Morocco’s claim to the territory, as part of efforts to get Morocco to recognize Israel. Other countries, including the Polisario’s main ally Algeria, recognize Western Sahara as independent, while still more support U.N. efforts for a negotiated solution.

The rising tensions have gotten the attention of the U.N., whose Minurso force oversaw the cease-fire and whose secretary-general recently appointed Staffan de Mistura, a seasoned Italian diplomat and former U.N. envoy for Syria, to take charge of the negotiations.

The Polisario’s leader, Brahim Ghali, last week warned that de Mistura must be given a clear mandate from the Security Council to carry out a referendum. Western Sahara will be before the Council on Oct. 28, when members vote on whether to extend the Minurso mission.

Achieving progress is also a matter of legitimacy for the Polisario. After years of internal division, the new hostilities have rallied pro-independence supporters around its leadership, but many fear that the lack of results could lead to more radicalization.

In the camps, the live fire from the front line reverberates strongly among refugees, who were forced to confront the precariousness of their existence when the humanitarian aid they rely on slowed to a trickle during the pandemic.

Medical missions were halted, medicine was in short supply and prices of camel, goat and chicken meat all went up, said 29-year old Dahaba Chej Baha, a refugee in the Boujdour camp. On a recent morning, the mother of a 3-year-old was sheltering in the shade while in her third hour of waiting for an Algerian truck to deliver gas canisters.

“Everything is so difficult here,” Chej Baha said, adding that those who would typically find ways to work overseas and send money back have become trapped because of pandemic-related travel restrictions. “I don’t like war, but I feel that nothing is going to change without it.”

Meima Ali, another mother, with three kids, said she was against the war, but that her voice was not listened to in a community dominated by men.

“My husband has to decide between finding work or looking like a traitor for not going to the front,” she said. “How am I going to survive without him? Here, we live as if we were dead.”

Morocco denies that there is an armed conflict raging in what it calls its “southern provinces,” where about 90,000 Sahrawi people are estimated to live alongside 350,000 Moroccans. Morocco has told the U.N. mission that its troops only return fire “in cases of direct threat” and “always in proportion to actions” of the Polisario.

In a response to questions from The Associated Press, the Moroccan government said that there have been “unilateral attacks” by the Polisario but no casualties on the Moroccan side.

It called any effort to portray the conflict as something bigger “propaganda elements intended for the media” and “desperate gesticulations to attract attention.”

Intissar Fakir, an expert on the region for the Washington-based Middle East Institute, said that a full-fledged conflict — which could pit Morocco and Algeria against each other — wasn’t in anyone’s interest. But she said that negotiating a lasting solution wouldn’t be easy either.

“Maybe in terms of international law, the Polisario have their standing, but I think Morocco here is the strongest it has ever been with the U.S. recognition and de facto control over most of the territory,” she said. But the Polisario, she added, “is more entrenched in their own position because they really have kind of nothing to lose at this point.”

Although many interviewed by the AP at the camps or on the front line expressed frustration with the years of negotiations that the Polisario defended until last year, open criticism is hard to come by in such a tight community.

Baali Hamudi Nayim, a veteran of the 1970s and 1980s war against Mauritania and Morocco, said he had been against the 1991 cease-fire.

“If it was up to me, the time for a political solution without any guarantees, through the U.N. or others, is over,” said Hamudi, who is back in his guerrilla attire to oversee battalions in the restive Mahbas. “For me, the solution is a military one.”

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Associated Press journalists Bernat Armangué in Sahrawi refugee camps and Tarik El Barakah and Mosa’ab Elshamy in Rabat, Morocco, contributed to this report.

Western Sahara Clashes Fuelled by ‘Frustration’ Over Status Quo
Polisario Front, backed by Morocco's arch-rival Algeria, has long demanded a referendum on independence in the Western Sahara as provided for by a 1991 UN Security Council resolution.

Polisario Front flags flutter over a parade by the Sahrawi People’s Liberation Army. 

Phtoo: Farouk Batiche/AFP

 STAFF WRITER WITH AFP NOVEMBER 23, 2020

Armed clashes between Morocco and the Polisario Front reflect the movement’s frustration with a three-decade status quo that has frozen its dreams of independence in the Western Sahara, analysts say.

The group, backed by Morocco’s arch-rival Algeria, has long demanded a referendum on independence in the territory as provided for by a 1991 UN Security Council resolution.

Morocco has offered autonomy but insists it will keep sovereignty over the former Spanish colony.

But after a 1991 ceasefire deal crumbled earlier this month “taking up arms again is a question of survival for Sahrawis”, said Algerian political analyst Mansour Kedidir.

Morocco in early November accused the Polisario of blocking a key highway for trade with the rest of Africa, and launched a military operation to reopen it.

The pro-independence movement, which says the road was built in violation of the 1991 deal, declared the truce null and void and insisted it had no choice but “to intensify the fight for national liberation.”

It has since announced daily attacks, mostly targeting a Moroccan defensive wall in the territory.

Under the 1991 truce deal, Morocco controls around three-quarters of the Western Sahara, including its considerable phosphate deposits and access to its rich Atlantic fisheries.

The Polisario controls the rest of the territory, which in total is around half the size of Spain.

Talks between Morocco and the Polisario, as well as neighboring Algeria and Mauritania, have been suspended since March 2019.

The UN’s envoy for the territory, former German president Horst Kohler, quit in May of that year citing poor health and has not been replaced.

The Polisario is now “desperate,” said a western diplomat, on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue.

“They see that there is no political track and they just want to get some attention, so some pressure (is) made on a political solution,” he said.
‘Massive Force’

Kedidir said the Polisario’s frustration was understandable given the UN’s “inability to settle the issue,” and the movement says the coastal highway linking Morocco to Mauritania was built in violation of the ceasefire.

Meanwhile, Morocco accuses the Polisario of “provocations” in the Guerguerat buffer zone.

Saharawi men hold up a Polisario Front flag in the Al-Mahbes area near Moroccan soldiers guarding the wall separating the Polisario controlled Western Sahara from Morocco on February 3, 2017. Photo: AFP

Another diplomatic source said civilian protesters at the buffer zone had been “supported by four all-terrain vehicles equipped with machine guns,” which entered the area via Mauritania.

That prompted Rabat to “solve the problem definitively with massive force”, sending in troops supported by some 200 vehicles, he said.

The UN has warned of the dangers of a collapse of the 1991 ceasefire, signed after 15 years of bitter conflict.

But despite the 1991 Security Council resolution calling for “a referendum for self-determination of the people of the Western Sahara,” Morocco points out that the most recent resolution makes no mention of a vote.

The Polisario has vowed to continue its struggle for a referendum.

‘Freedom or Death’

Algerian former diplomat Abdelaziz Rahabi said Sahrawis were right “not to give much credit to the UN,” saying the world body’s Western Sahara mission MINURSO had been reduced to the role of “traffic police.”

“The Security Council is being held hostage by France, and to a lesser degree by the United States, which does not envisage any other solution than the authority of Morocco over Western Sahara,” he said. “The status quo… hurts the interests of the Sahrawi people and threatens stability in the region.”

The first Western diplomat warned of the consequences of the Polisario’s leadership becoming weakened.

“We have to do something because the problem will not go away,” said one of the western diplomats. “I am afraid that the leadership of the Polisario will weaken. The young people don’t have this patience, they could become much more radical and we don’t want that.”

The Polisario Front has said it is mobilizing “thousands of volunteers” to join its fighters, and in refugee camps in Algeria, frustrated young Sahrawis say they are ready to take up arms.

“The Sahrawi people have given enough time for peace,” said Mohamed Ambeirik, 28.

A graduate in international relations, he has decided to join the Polisario in its armed struggle.

“We will continue with what our elders started. We’re sick of waiting,” he said by phone from a Polisario camp in Tindouf.

“Without a country, we’re nothing. Today, it’s freedom or death.”

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2020/11/23/western-sahara-frustration-status-quo/