Tension between Morocco and the Polisario Front soars in the extreme south of Western Sahara

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It is the most serious incident between Morocco and the Polisario Front in recent years.

The Moroccan army launched an operation on Friday to reopen a route to neighboring Mauritania, blocked for three weeks by hundreds of Sahrawi protesters.

Following this action, the Polisario Front has accused Rabat of breaking the ceasefire agreed in 1991.

During the operation,

were

by both sides, according to the story of Moroccan sources to the Efe agency.

Rabat emphasizes that they were warning shots and that they did not target people.

Sahrawi sources confirmed to the news center that they fired "a tactical shot to buy time and drive the Moroccans back while the civilians were evacuated."

There are no victims in the incident.

Sahrawi protesters have left the area, retreating into territory controlled by the Polisario.

According to the Foreign Ministry of the Alawite kingdom, the objective of the military operation was "to put an end to the blockade situation" and to "restore free civil and commercial movement" through the

, reports France-Presse.

The Sahrawis, for their part, speak of aggression.

"The war began. Morocco ended the ceasefire," Saharawi Foreign Minister Mohamed Salem Uld Salek told the same agency.

In a statement quoted by Efe, the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) of Morocco explained that they have established "a security cordon to guarantee the flow of goods and people."

They add that it is a "non-offensive" operation, that there is no "bellicose intention" and that weapons will not be used, "except in the case of legitimate defense."

The Polisario Front describes the operation as "military aggression against Sahrawi civilians" and assures that "the Moroccan army opened three breaches in the Guerguerat region and has crossed the wall," according to the official SPS agency.

Given this, he has indicated that his forces "have responded to the attack" and that they are on alert.

The

, the UN mission monitoring the ceasefire, have not intervened.

The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has expressed through his spokesman his "grave concern about the possible consequences of these latest events."

Meanwhile, Algeria - an ally of the Polisario Front - has condemned "the grave violation" of the ceasefire and has appealed "to the sense of responsibility and restraint" of both parties.

Guerguerat is located in the extreme south of Western Sahara.

It is a

divided by the defensive wall built by Morocco in the 1980s to keep polisario attacks at bay.

This wall of sand would disconnect you from Mauritania and the rest of West Africa were it not for a customs office that Morocco has opened despite the fact that this border is not internationally recognized.

Protests

Since October 21, hundreds of Sahrawi civilians from the refugee camps in Tindouf (Algeria) have camped on the Guerguerat strip to demand the closure of what they consider to be an "illegal" border.

The demonstrations also called for the holding once and for all of the promised

, which after the withdrawal from Spain in 1975 appears in the United Nations as a territory pending decolonization.

Morocco and Mauritania occupied the void left by Spain and faced the Polisario Front - which claims its sovereignty - in an armed conflict.

Mauritania withdrew shortly afterwards, defeated militarily, and Morocco occupied its space and continued the fight until in 1991 it signed a ceasefire with the Polisario Front.

Since then, the truce has been fulfilled, although there have been moments of tension.

.

In November 2010, Morocco violently dismantled a Sahrawi protest camp in Gdeim Izik (on the outskirts of El Aaiún, the capital of Western Sahara occupied by Rabat), causing several deaths and hundreds of injuries, figures that to this day have not yet been reported. have clarified.

This new incident between Morocco and the Polisario Front takes place on the eve of the

of November 14, 1975, by which Spain ceded the administration of the territory - not sovereignty - to Morocco and Mauritania.

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