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Rabat – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has confirmed the Polisario front’s violations of military agreement, particularly in Guerguerat.
In his new report to the Security Council on the situation in Western Sahara, Guterres noted the presence of the Polisario members in Guerguerat, near the Moroccan-Mauritanian border, in October and November of 2020.
The presence of the Polisario’s militias in the region resulted in a three-week blockade that hampered the flow of civil and commercial activity, and caused significant disruption in regional traffic.
In his report, of which Morocco World News obtained a copy of, Guterres informed the UN Security Council that reconnaissance operations by peacekeeping operation MINURSO identified the Polisario’s presence in the buffer zone.
About 12 members of the Polisario Front in military uniform have been present in the buffer zone since October 22, and MINURSO observers have identified the presence of “eight military vehicles, two of which were equipped with heavy weapons,” the report noted.
The Polisario also used dozens of children and women “as human shields” to block the passage to Guerguerate, continued the report.
Morocco has consistently warned against the Polisario Front’s presence in the region, calling on the UN to intervene.
On November 7, 2020, King Mohammed VI condemned Polisario’s provocations in the region.
The monarch said that such maneuvers threaten the security of the region and also violate the status quo in UN-restricted areas.
Despite the UN’s warnings, the Polisario Front declined to abide by the UN resolutions and asserted their illegal presence in the region. As a result, Morocco finally decided on November 13 to deploy a contingent of its armed forces to “establish a security cordon” and restore traffic in the region.
Since Morocco’s intervention, Polisario’s attempts to frame the country’s response to its provocations as a “brutal attack” on civilians and a violation of the ceasefire have largely backfired on the group’s longstanding victimhood rhetoric.
Meanwhile, many countries have since reiterated their support for Morocco’s territorial integrity. The US recognized Moroccan sovereignty on Western Sahara in December of last year, just one month after the Guerguerat incidents.
Equally disconcerting from Polisario’s perspective, 26 African and Arab countries have opened diplomatic representations in Laayoune and Dakhla, confirming their support for Morocco’s sovereignty over its southern provinces.
In his report, Guterres informed the Security Council that MINURSO had warned the Polisario that their presence in Guerguerat constituted a “violation of military agreement No.1,” urging an immediate withdrawal of its military personnel and their vehicles from the buffer strip.
Guterres also informed the Security Council of Morocco’s response to Polisario’s provocations.
He also recalled King Mohammed VI’s statements regarding Polisario’s provocations, affirming that Morocco “would respond, with the most great firmness and determination in any practice or attempt aimed at undermining the security and stability of its southern provinces.”
This is not the first time Polisario’s provocations are listed in Guterres’ report.
In October 2020, Guterres alerted the Security Council on multiple ceasefire violations by the Polisario Front.
The UN chief also warned against the “significant deterioration of the Polisario’s military cooperation with MINURSO,” noting 57 major violations by the Polisario Front, in addition to over 1,000 individual violations.
