Tension in Western Sahara: international reactions call for calm
Minurso soldiers (photo illustration).
AFP
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4 min
On Friday, November 13, the Polisario Front announced the end of the cease-fire concluded almost thirty years ago, in 1991. An announcement made after a Moroccan military operation in the buffer zone of Guerguerat to unblock a road to the Mauritania.
The UN and countries bordering Morocco have since reacted.
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The separatists of the Polisario Front announced on Friday, November 13 the end of a 30-year-old ceasefire in Western Sahara, after
Morocco launched a military operation
in a buffer zone of this disputed territory.
Morocco's two neighbors, both involved in the political negotiations on Western Sahara, call for restraint.
Mauritania, whose army reinforced its border positions in the middle of the week, calls on all the protagonists to preserve the cease-fire.
As for Algeria, support of the Polisario Front, it calls for the end of military operations.
His Foreign Minister, Sabri Boukadoum, reiterates his request for the appointment of a UN envoy, as soon as possible, and the resumption of talks suspended since March 2019. Discussions that involve the Polisario, Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania.
For his part, the Secretary General of the United Nations regrets that his efforts in recent days to avoid an escalation in Guerguerat have failed.
Antonio Guterres says he remains determined to do everything possible to avoid the collapse of the ceasefire concluded in 1991. Antonio Guterres has received a letter from the leadership of the Polisario Front asking him to seize the Security Council.
We will continue to observe very closely what is happening on the ground, we have a MINURSO presence in Guerguerat [...] We ask all parties to guarantee total freedom of movement for the mission of the Nations united in place, in accordance with its mandate.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for Antonio Guterres
Francois Mazet
In recent days, the King of Morocco has exchanged messages with the UN, France, the United States, Mauritania, and other countries involved in the case to warn them of the operation intended to "
put an end to the blocking situation
”in Guerguerat, he said.
France called on Friday evening to "
do everything to avoid escalation and to return as quickly as possible to a political solution
", the French foreign ministry reported to AFP.
Paris recommends "
the appointment as soon as possible of a new personal envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations
".
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