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Rabat – Despite the United Nations’ continual calls for Polisario Front to extract its militias from Guerguerate, the Algerian-backed separatist movement continues to escalate its provocations.
The Polisario has recently set up new checkpoints, forcing the vehicles to pass via a narrow passage in front of its armed elements in Guerguerate region, in the southernmost part of Western Sahara.
The Polisario is reportedly planning to set up a roadblock between the border of Morocco and Mauritania.
Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary General, released last week the UN’s annual report on Western Sahara, in which he continued to urge Polisario to withdraw from the Guerguerate region, where its militia threatens human life, disturbs trade, and attempts to violate the 1991’s cease-fire agreement.
In February, King Mohammed VI requested Guterres, to take urgent and necessary measures to curb the Polisario Front’s activities, which he said jeopardize stability in Guerguerate. Guterres has since urged both Morocco and Polisario to “exercise maximum restraint and take all necessary steps to avoid escalating tensions.”
To avoid escalation and comply the United Nations’ ceasefire agreement, Morocco unilaterally withdrew from the Guerguerate region late February after dispatching police forces to the area last August to combat drug trafficking.
According to photos and videos that have emerged from the area, Polisario appeared to ignore the requests made by United Nations.
In the past few months, Polisario elements have been staging illegal checkpoints in the area, harassing and threatening truck drivers and attempting to hinder trade between Morocco and other African countries.
