Given the warlike claims of the Polisario Front and Algeria, it appears as though the separatists and their supporters are living in an alternate reality.
Rabat – Polisario and Algeria continue to push fake news and propaganda on the alleged ongoing war in the buffer zone despite Morocco’s efforts to restore peace in Guerguerat after the separatists’ repeated provocations.
Polisario’s official media agency published a set of reports claiming that the Front’s attacks on the “different hiding places” of Morocco’s army caused a “loss of lives and equipment” on Friday.
The Polisario Front, which declared the collapse of the ceasefire agreement with Morocco on Saturday, claimed that several areas in the UN-monitored buffer zone, including Mahbes and Guerguerat, “witnessed rocket shell and machine-gun attacks.”
Some Polisario Front supporters also shared fake news and videos on their social networks.
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Fake
Separatist activist Mohamed Radi Ellili posted one of the fake videos, showing missiles at night.
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He claimed that the video is of the clashes between Morocco and Polisario in Mahbes, a UN-monitored region along Morocco’s defense wall near Algeria. The video, however, dates back to 2017 and does not in any way belong to the situation in Guerguerat.
Morocco’s response to Polisario and Algeria’s fake news
Contrary to what Polisario claims about the attacks, Moroccan media reported on Friday afternoon that the situation in Guerguerat was calm after the armed forces’ early-morning intervention to secure the region following Polisario’s blockade of civil and commercial and traffic across the Moroccan-Mauritanian border.
Moroccan journalists in the region also reported a “very calm” situation and the presence of UN observers.
On Friday evening, Morocco’s state media reported that the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) concluded preparations for reopening the road in Guerguerat after beginning the security operation late on Thursday night.
FAR secured the region after establishing a security cordon to ensure the safe cross-border flow of goods and people.
Morocco’s government acknowledged that during the non-offensive security operation, Polisario opened fire on Morocco’s army, which retaliated, forcing the separatists to flee.
“No casualties were recorded,” the Moroccan army affirmed in response to Polisario’s fake news.
Ignoring the growing support for Morocco
Algeria, meanwhile, does not only support Polisario militarily and financially and its independence claims in Western Sahara but also supports the separatist group by sharing fake news.
The country’s official news agency APS published a set of reports, claiming growing condemnation against Morocco’s intervention in Guerguerat.
The claims contradict the support Morocco received from a long list of countries that backed Morocco’s intervention against Polisario’s maneuvers in the region.
In the Middle East, Jordan, Bahrain, the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait have all expressed support for Morocco’s action against Polisario’s maneuvers in Guerguerat.
In Africa, Gabon, Comoros, the Central African Republic, Djibouti, and Sao Tome and Principe also denounced Polisario’s acts, which defy all agreements and the UN-led political process and resolutions to find a solution to peacefully end the conflict.
Algerian state media also condemned Morocco’s intervention while ignoring the reason the Moroccan army was deployed in the region.
Algeria and Polisario’s dissemination of fake news is not exclusive to the Guerguerat crisis. The Polisario Front has long shared fake news regarding several cases, including the Gdim Izik dossier.
Recently, the Interministerial Delegation for Human Rights (DIDH) condemned the unfounded accusations some international NGOs and Polisario launched against Morocco with regards to the Gdeim Izik case.
Read also: What the World Needs To Know about Gdim Izik Incidents
The case dates back to ten years to an incident on the outskirts of Laayoune, where Polisario members killed a group of Moroccan security forces.
At least 11 members of Morocco’s security services who were in the region to dismantle Polisario camps were killed while 70 people were injured.
