Rabat – Armed militias from the Polisario Front on Monday blocked and opened fire on a UN convoy in the Agounit area, a locality in the disputed territory of Western Sahara near the Mauritanian border. It is located east of the Moroccan security wall, around 900 kilometers from the Tindouf camps.
Algerian political activist Oualid Kebir said the incident marks a serious escalation and reveals the ineffectiveness of the UN mission despite its large budget. “The incident revealed the UN mission’s effective inability to carry out its duties, despite the large budget allocated to it,” Kebir said.
This obstruction comes just one week after UN envoy Staffan de Mistura made a significant shift in his position on the Western Sahara dispute during a Security Council briefing.
Abandoning his previous proposal from October 2024, which suggested partitioning the territory between Morocco and the Polisario Front, De Mistura emphatically suggested that Morocco’s Autonomy Plan is the only viable and politically realistic solution.
This marked a major diplomatic victory for Morocco and a serious setback for both the Polisario and Algeria, who have long opposed the autonomy proposal. The envoy’s revised stance aligns with growing international support for Morocco’s plan, which has been viewed as credible and serious by the global community since 2007.
This is not the first time the Polisario has obstructed MINURSO. In March 2023, the armed group blocked UN access to team sites located east of the security wall.
“The convoy departed on 22 March. As it approached Mehaires, some 20 Frente POLISARIO armed elements blocked the track and stopped the convoy, insisting that it could not proceed and had to return to Smara,” read a 2023 report by UNSG Antonio Guterres.
At that time, strong pressure led to a temporary resolution, with the Polisario allowing UN peacekeepers to pass.
Kebir believes the Agounit incident may be a turning point, possibly leading to Morocco expanding its control over the buffer zone, especially in the wake of growing international support for Morocco’s autonomy plan.
Earlier this month, the US reaffirmed its strong support for Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio stating Washington’s unequivocal backing of Rabat’s position, another blow to Algeria’s diplomatic ambitions.
Several other countries have followed suit. Most recently, Croatia expressed its support. France, which had long tried to maintain neutrality, has now clearly backed Morocco’s sovereignty and vowed to rally international support. Spain also made a dramatic shift in March 2022, officially endorsing the autonomy plan after a diplomatic crisis with Morocco, reversing decades of support for the separatist narrative.
“The message from Agounit signals that the hour of political and territorial resolution is drawing near, and the end of the UN deadlock in the Moroccan Sahara has become only a matter of time,” Kebir concluded.
