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Rabat – The United Nations mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO) has increased patrols to oversee the ceasefire agreement in the region, following Polisario’s recent actions east of Morocco’s defense wall.
Security sources in Morocco’s southern city of Laayoune reported that UN Special Representative and Head of MINURSO, Colin Stewart, ordered the increase of patrols to monitor the ceasefire agreement.
Stewart ordered his staff to increase the number of four-wheel drive vehicles and surveillance helicopters to facilitate MINURSO’s mission.
The Polisario Front pushed MINURSO to be on alert, especially after its provocative maneuvers in Tifariti, in the region east of Morocco’s defense wall.
Last Sunday, the separatist group celebrated the 45th anniversary of “the struggle of its army” in the region, in defiance of the UN Security Council’s recently adopted Resolution 2414.
The resolution made the Security Council’s stance on the Polisario Front clear, urging the separatist group to withdraw from Guerguerat and expressing concern about the group’s intention to relocate its facilities to Bir Lahlou, east of Morocco’s defense wall.
Moroccan news outlet Hespress reported today that it has obtained confidential documents that prove MINURSO’s alert situation.
The documents, consisting of photographs, show many monitoring vehicles waiting for a new shipment of surveillance helicopters that will facilitate MINURSO’s mission to monitor the whole area east of Morocco’s sand wall.
The recent resolution of the Security Council has also reduced the mandate of MINURSO to only six months instead of a year. Subsequently, 12 employees of the mission have reportedly returned to the UN headquarters in New York.
Polisario’s recent violation in Tifariti is a serious development that calls for resolute intervention by the United Nations.
Morocco has condemned Polisario’s “flagrant’ actions east of Morocco’s defense wall, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling on the separatist group to refrain from changing the status quo and undermining the UN-led political process to reach a mutually acceptable political solution to the four-decade long conflict.
