Morocco Expels UN From Western Sahara
On March 5, 2016, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon visited Bir-Lehlou, a UN base and refugee town located in the disputed territory of the Western Sahara. During his visit, he declared that the native Sahrawis were living in a state of “occupation.” Morocco immediately condemned the Secretary’s assessment, announced the immediate expulsion of all UN peacekeepers present in the region, and canceled its $3 million voluntary contribution to the mission. Since 1975, Morocco has taken advantage of the Spanish withdrawal to occupy and control the Western Saharan territories. As a response, the Polisario Front, representing the interest of the Sahrawis, declared the creation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), which Morocco has refused to recognize.
Moroccan authorities have since then built a “Wall of Sands,” manned by 100,000 men in order to stifle local guerillas, forcing several hundred thousands of Sahrawis to flee and relocate in neighboring Algeria and Mauritania. In an attempt to monitor both sides of the conflict, and of the wall, the United Nations granted MINURSO (UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara) a mandate to oversee the ceasefire and the holding of a referendum, which would settle the fate of the region. Today, MINURSO has been present on the ground for over 25 years and has produced no tangible results, notably because of disagreements between Morocco and the SADR concerning voting lists.
Map of UN outposts in Western Sahara.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric assured that Ban “has not and will not take sides on the issue of Western Sahara,” and that his statement was the expression of the Secretary’s emotional reaction to the sufferings of the Sahrawis. Dujarric added that the UN sought “to encourage the parties to negotiate without precondition and in good faith to find “a mutually acceptable political solution which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.” However, Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs subsequently stated that the expulsion of the mission’s staff was “irreversible,” and that the situation was “the result of an old strategy of manipulation against which Morocco has warned.”
Timing could not have been more ill-fated for Ban. On April 28, the Security Council is expected to vote on the prolongation of the MINURSO’s mandate which comes to end on April 30. The Secretary General thus decided to delay the presentation of his annual report on the “situation concerning the Western Sahara” to the Security Council, which was supposed to be held earlier this month.
Although most member countries recognize the right to self-determination of the Sahrawis, Morocco’s important allies in the Security Council - namely France - render all hopes of political resolution null. Finding an answer to the conflict would bring stability to a region recently destabilized by the menacing presence of radical groups in the unruly Sahara. Consequently, Nick Scott from Independent Diplomat warns that “Morocco has a long history of calculated overreaction when it comes to Western Sahara” and beseeches members of the Security Council to not fall into the “temptation to do the easy thing and kick the can down the road with platitudes of support that are not backed by concrete action.” “The people of Western Sahara deserve better,” he concludes.