Guerguerat
The pro-independence Polisario Front on Saturday reported clashes in the Western Sahara after Morocco launched an operation in the buffer zone in the disputed territory, as the UN led calls for restraint.
Tensions in the former Spanish colony have sparked concern around the globe, with the United Nations, the African Union, Algeria and Mauritania urging both sides to respect a 1991 ceasefire. But senior Polisario official Mohamed Salem Ould Salek said on Saturday that the ceasefire supervised by the United Nations is a “thing of the past”.
“Fighting is continuing after the crime committed by Moroccan troops in Guerguerat,” Ould Salek, a foreign minister of the Polisario-declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), told AFP.
SADR President and Polisario Secretary-General Brahim Ghali said he had “declared war” on Friday and announced “the resumption of armed actions in order to protect the inalienable rights of our people”.
On Friday, Morocco announced that its troops launched a military operation in the buffer zone of Guerguerat in order to reopen the highway to Mauritania, accusing the Polisario of blocking the road.
Dozens of truck drivers have been stranded for days at Guerguerat, the last Moroccan-held stop before the road enters the buffer zone along the border where the Polisario has kept a periodic presence.
The road is key for trade with the rest of Africa. Late Friday the SADR defence ministry said Sahrawi forces had carried out “massive attacks” during the afternoon at multiple points along Morocco’s 2,700 kilometre (1,700 mile) long defensive wall.
It said they had inflicted “human and material damage on the enemy”. The claim was denied in Rabat by a “well informed source” which said that Morocco’s army chief of staff and the UN’s MINURSO mission did not report any attacks.
Morocco’s military, later Friday, said it had secured the Guerguerat crossing between Morocco and Mauritania by installing “a security cordon” along its desert wall.
The unrest in Western Sahara has sparked concern around the world. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed “grave concern regarding the consequences of the latest developments” that erupted despite UN efforts to avoid an escalation.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN chief, said that MINURSO deployed in Guerguerat “a special civil-military team… since the beginning of the crisis” and military observers were there overnight.—AFP
