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Rabat – UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has urged the Polisario Front to leave Guerguerat, a town in the buffer strip near the Moroccan-Mauritanian border.
On Wednesday, the UN chief warned that “regular civil and commercial traffic must not be hampered” in Guerguerat.
The spokesperson of the UN Secretary General, Stephane Dujarric, conveyed Guterres’ warning.
According to the UN top official, actors in the area can take no measure that could constitute a change of the status quo in the buffer zone of Guerguerat.
Dujarric added that members of the UN peacekeeping operation, MINURSO, said on Wednesday that a group of 50 Polisario members were in Guerguerat.
“Our colleagues in the UN Mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO) reports that, as of this morning, it observed some 50 people, including men, women and children, present in the buffer strip at Guerguerat. They were blocking the traffic that passes through the area.”
Dujarric urged all parties concerned to “show restraint and take all necessary measures to ease tensions” in the region.
He said that MINURSO also mobilized more staff in the area to help defuse any tension and disruption to regular civil and commercial traffic.
“The Mission will continue to monitor the situation closely,” the spokesperson said.
The UN chief has repeatedly ordered the Polisario Front to refrain from any actions against Military Agreement No. 1 and UN resolutions seeking to help to put an end to the regional conflict.
In September, the UN repeated the same warning, calling on Polisario to stop provocative actions against the status quo of the region.
“No action shall be taken that might constitute an alteration of the status quo in the buffer zone,” the UN chief said last month through deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq.
Guterres also recalled that such maneuvers escalate tension in Guerguerat and elsewhere in the buffer strip.
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