This article needs to be updated.(June 2023) |
2020–2024 Western Saharan clashes | |||||||||
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Part of the Western Sahara conflict | |||||||||
Map of the Western Sahara; location of Guerguerat, where the clashes began, is marked with a red circle. | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Kingdom of Morocco | Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Units involved | |||||||||
Royal Moroccan Armed Forces | Sahrawi People's Liberation Army | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
At least 6 soldiers killed [2] [3] [1] [lower-alpha 1] | At least 12 soldiers killed [5] | ||||||||
66 killed overall (as of July 2023 [update] ) [6] [7] | |||||||||
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The 2020–2024 Western Saharan clashes, also called the Guerguerat crisis, Moroccan military intervention in Guerguerat or Second Western Sahara War, is an armed conflict between the Kingdom of Morocco and the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), represented at the United Nations by the Polisario Front, in the disputed region of Western Sahara. It was the latest escalation of an unresolved conflict over the region, which is largely occupied by Morocco, but 20–25% is administered by the SADR. [8] The violence ended a ceasefire between the opposing sides that had held for 29 years in anticipation of a referendum of self-determination that would have settled the dispute. Despite the establishment of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara in 1991, the referendum was never held.
Tensions between Morocco and the Polisario Front deepened in mid-October 2020 when Sahrawi peaceful protesters blocked a controversial road connecting Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara to sub-Saharan Africa. The protesters camped on the road near the small village of Guerguerat, where it passes through a 5-kilometer-wide buffer strip monitored by the UN. Despite the controversy, the route had grown in economic importance, [9] such that the protest stranded about 200 Moroccan truck drivers on the Mauritanian side of the border. [10] According to the MINURSO, both Morocco and Polisario deployed forces near the area in late October, [11] with Mauritanian forces reinforcing their positions along its border with Morocco, which is controlled by the Polisario Front. [12]
On 13 November, Morocco launched a military operation from the Berm into the demilitarized buffer strip of Western Sahara to clear the protesters near Guerguerat and restore the free movement of goods and people. The Polisario Front urged the United Nations to intervene, noting that the Moroccan military operation violated the ceasefire agreements of the 1990s, and furthermore accused the Moroccan security forces of shooting at unarmed civilians in the buffer strip. [13] [14] Morocco denied there had been any armed clashes between the sides and said the truce remained in place, [15] while SADR authorities declared the ceasefire over. Clashes spread that same day along the Moroccan Berm, with Morocco claiming that it had repelled a Sahrawi incursion near Al Mahbes. [16] The SADR declared war on Morocco the next day. [17] Since the beginning of the conflict, both countries have begun mass mobilisation and the SADR Ministry of Defense claims to be carrying out daily bombardments on military objectives along the Moroccan Berm. [18] [19] [20] It is the first major clash in the region since 1991. [21]
The disputed region of Western Sahara is a sparsely-populated area mostly comprising desert territories, situated in the Maghreb region of Africa's northwest coast. The region was a Spanish colony until February 1976, when the Spanish government informed the United Nations that it withdrew from the territory. Since then, the region has been the subject of a long-running territorial dispute between Morocco, supported by a number of its prominent Arab allies, including Saudi Arabia and Jordan, [22] and the Saharawi Republic (SADR), an African Union member state established by the Algerian-backed pro-independence Polisario Front, which is recognized by the United Nations as the legitimate representative of the indigenous Sahrawi people. [23] Some commentators have connected Morocco's interests over the region with the idea of Greater Morocco, which encompasses Western Sahara and parts of both Mauritania, Mali, and Algeria, and according to the narrative, was divided up by the French and Spanish colonizers. [22] Morocco, claiming Tindouf and Béchar provinces, invaded Algeria in 1963, resulting in the brief Sand War, which ended in a military stalemate. [24]
While the Polisario Front had waged a low-intensity war of national liberation against Spanish colonial authorities since May 1973, the Western Sahara War began in October 1975, just weeks before the death of long-time Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, when Moroccan and Mauritanian forces, [25] [26] aided by France, [27] [28] invaded the Spanish colony. While Mauritania withdrew from Western Sahara and recognized the Saharawi Republic early in the conflict, by the end of the war Morocco had obtained control of more than two-thirds of the vast desert territory in its western part, along the Atlantic Ocean. [29] During the war, between 1980 and 1987, Morocco built six mostly sand barriers some 2,700 kilometres (1,700 mi) long, [30] and in 1988, both Morocco and the Polisario Front agreed to a UN Settlement Plan, approved by the UN Security Council on 29 April 1991, called for a referendum, which would ask the Sahrawis to choose between independence or integration into Morocco, to be organized and conducted by the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). [31] After the war, on 6 September 1991, an UN-brokered ceasefire was signed, [32] promising a referendum on self-determination to the Sahrawis. [33] The United Nations has recognising the area as a non-self-governing territory since 1963; it is also the only African territory on the list, making the Western Sahara the last African territory subject to decolonization. [33] [34] Despite the efforts, the planned referendum has been repeatedly delayed ever since then; [35] Morocco had refused the terms of the referendum, citing its dissatisfaction with who was allowed to vote, [36] while tens of thousands of Moroccans have emigrated to the region since the 1970s. [22]
Guerguerat is a small village located on the southern coast of the region, along the Moroccan National Route 1 leading to Mauritania, some 380 kilometres (240 mi) north of Nouakchott, in a buffer zone patrolled by MINURSO; [37] UN's envoy to the region, Horst Köhler, resigned in mid-2019 for health-related reasons. [38] The Polisario Front considers the road illegal since they say it was built in violation of the ceasefire. [39] Tensions yet again deepened between Morocco and the Polisario Front in mid-October, when unarmed Sahrawi refugees from Tindouf, Algeria (where Polisario-administered refugee camps house about 100,000 Sahrawi refugees [40] ) passed through SADR-controlled territories to camp on and block the road in protest of what they called the plunder of Western Saharan resources from the Sahrawi people, [41] creating a large caravan of vehicles and blocking traffic in the region. [42] Morocco, which regards the region as vital to trade with sub-Saharan Africa, [9] accused the Polisario Front of infiltrating the buffer zone and "carrying out acts of banditry" in Guerguerat. [43] The Moroccan authorities also stated that the Polisario Front was harassing UN troops at the crossing, though the UN denied this. [33]
These protesters were later joined by a group of up to 12 Sahrawi People's Liberation Army (SPLA) fighters and 8 light vehicles, two of which had mounted heavy weapons, in violation of the ceasefire. The Polisario Front claimed they were exclusively there to protect the protesters but later removed some of the light vehicles on 29 October after being told by MINURSO withdraw from the area. At the same time, 16 Royal Moroccan Army vehicles carrying heavy-duty machinery were observed west of the berm near Guerguerat. To reduce tensions, MINURSO requested that the Moroccan army also leave the area. Despite claiming it would comply to the request, no withdrawal was observed. [11]
In early November, around 200 Moroccan truck drivers appealed to Moroccan and Mauritanian authorities for help, saying they were stranded on the Mauritanian side of the border near Guerguerat, and adding that they didn't have access to drinking water, food, shelter, or medicine, with some suffering from chronic illnesses. [10] According to Jeune Afrique , Morocco first appealed to the United Nations to resolve the conflict peacefully, and that although the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, approved this request, the situation was not resolved. [44] Guterres himself likewise said that he had launched numerous initiatives to evade an escalation in the buffer zone, but his efforts had failed. [45] On 6 November, MINURSO observed that Morocco was deploying a large force consisting of 250 vehicles near Guerguerat. [11] On 12 November, Mauritanian forces reinforced their positions along border Polisario Front-controlled territories bordering Mauritania. [12]
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On 13 November 2020, both Morocco and the SADR introduced mass mobilisation. [18] [19] The SADR evacuated civilians from the Guerguerat area [46] and introduced a curfew in the territories under its control. [47]
Since the start of the clashes, Algeria has reiterated its support for Western Saharan independence. [48] However, Algeria has been reluctant to send the SADR any serious type of equipment. Consequently, the SADR has been compelled to rely on outdated equipment dating back to the late 1980s and early 1990s, given that its previous arms supplier, Muammar Gaddafi, has long died. This predicament poses a challenge for the SPLA as they have to confront Moroccan forces equipped with more advanced weaponry, including drones. [49]
Despite that, Algeria still cooperates with the SADR by opening up its borders everyday to SPLA fighters armed with artillery who shoot at Moroccan positions. [50]
Following the signing of the Israel–Morocco normalization agreement in December 2020, Morocco has purchased advanced military equipment from Israel including at least 150 drones. [50] [51] The use of these drones has been documented in Polisario-controlled Western Sahara where they have killed both SPLA fighters and civilians. [50] Israeli drones are also suspected to have been used to follow the movements of SPLA forces. [52]
In October 2022, Morocco made a deal with Israel to build two factories to produce war drones with Israeli supervision and expertise. These factories, once completed, will allow Morocco to manufacture advanced drones at a low cost compared to those it had been buying from China and Turkey. [53]
In 2021, Turkey sold 13 Bayraktar TB2 attack drones to Morocco. Missile fragments examined by the Intercept indicated that the Bayraktar TB2s have been used on targets in Western Sahara. [51]
In 2020, Morocco acquired three to four Chinese-made Wing Loong Is as a gift from the UAE. It was one of these UCAVs that Morocco reportedly used to kill Addah al-Bendir, the chief of the Polisario head of the Gendarmerie, in April 2021. [54]
On 13 November, Sahrawi sources stated that there were mass protests in Laayoune, the unofficial capital of Western Sahara, which is de facto administered by Morocco, against the clashes. [60] The Moroccan media denied these claims, stating that the city's population was in support of the Moroccan forces, citing Laayoune's mayor. [61] Despite that, the NGO media outlet Équipe Media reported that the Moroccan government was exercising a strong police force, and had arrested several activists. [62] The next day, the same source stated that the Moroccan security forces had arrested several demonstrators in Smara. [63]
On 14 November, some Sahrawi tribal leaders issued a joint statement in support of the Moroccan intervention to restore free movement in Guerguerat. [64] More than fifty riders from the Moroccan Bikers Club and the Royal Petanque Club organized a trip from Casablanca to the Guerguerat border crossing starting on 27 December and ending on 3 January 2021, in a way to express their support for the Moroccan army's move to secure the crossing. [65]
Sahrawi self-determination activist Sultana Khaya described Moroccan control of the Western Sahara as an occupation and called for the United States to intensify diplomatic pressure on Morocco in favor of self-determination. [66] She has been under de facto house arrest since November 2020 and subject to repeated home raids and sexual assault by Moroccan security forces, as reported by a number of international human rights organizations. [67] [68] [69]
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, [70] and the chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki, expressed their grave concern over the conflict, with Faki stating "[The] Saharan issue has gone on for a long time and it has become urgent to solve it as a case of decolonization in the first place and to support the UN efforts in this regard." [71] [72] The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, stated that the EU was supporting the efforts of the United Nations to find a peaceful settlement for the conflict, per the Security Council resolutions, and stressing the insurance of freedom of movement in Guerguerat. [73] The secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Yousef Al-Othaimeen, and the secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Nayef bin Falah Al-Hajraf, stated that they support Morocco's efforts to what they called "securing freedom of civil and commercial movement." [74] [75] On 20 November, the Chairperson of the African Union and President of the Republic of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, wrote a letter to the United Nations Security Council that called for "all the parties to uphold the Settlement Plan, which provides for 'a cease-fire' and the holding of a referendum for the people of Western Sahara to exercise their right to self-determination." [76] The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization released a statement voicing its support for Western Sahara and condemned Morocco's "unlawful assertion" of sovereignty over Western Sahara. [77]
You can help expand this section with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish. (December 2020)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
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Azerbaijan, [78] Bahrain, [79] the Central African Republic, [80] Comoros, [80] the Democratic Republic of the Congo, [81] Chad, [82] [83] Djibouti, [84] Equatorial Guinea, [85] Gabon, [86] [84] the Gambia, [87] Haiti, [88] Jordan, [89] Kuwait, [90] Liberia, [91] Oman, [92] Qatar, [93] São Tomé and Príncipe, [80] Saudi Arabia, [94] Senegal, [95] Sierra Leone, [96] Turkey, [97] Yemen (Hadi government), [98] and the United Arab Emirates [99] voiced their support for Morocco, while Guyana withdrew its recognition of the SADR. [100]
The Foreign Ministry of the State of Palestine said it "does not interfere in the internal affairs of the brotherly Arab countries". [101] Egypt, [84] Mauritania, [102] Russia, [103] and Spain [104] have all urged both parties to respect the ceasefire.
South Africa, Algeria and other states[ who? ] backed the Polisario Front, accused Morocco of violating the ceasefire and urged the UN to appoint a new Western Sahara envoy to restart talks. [105] Algeria also sent 60 tons of food and medical aid to the refugees in Western Sahara. [106] On the other hand, Spain's second deputy prime minister Pablo Iglesias Turrión, [107] Cuba, [108] and Venezuela [109] have stated that they supported the right to self-determination of the Sahrawis.
On 15 November, a group of Sahrawis staged a rally in front of the Moroccan consulate in Valencia, Spain. The protestors dismantled the flag of Morocco from the consulate, raising the SADR's flag over the building. [110] [111] Spain [112] and Morocco [113] condemned the incident.
According to International Crisis Group's Portuguese analytic Riccardo Fabiani, the conflict could be a "potential breaking point that could have major repercussions", adding that the United Nations had been quite negligent towards this issue. [37]
Western Sahara is a disputed territory on the northwest coast of Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 80% of the territory is occupied and administered by neighboring Morocco. It has a surface area of 266,000 square kilometres (103,000 sq mi). It is the second most sparsely populated country in the world and the most sparsely populated in Africa, mainly consisting of desert flatlands. The population is estimated at just over 500,000, of which nearly 40% live in Morocco-controlled Laayoune, the largest city in Western Sahara.
Western Sahara, formerly the Spanish colony of Spanish Sahara, is a disputed territory claimed by both the Kingdom of Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro, which is an independence movement based in Tifariti and Bir Lehlou. The Annexation of Western Sahara by Morocco took place in two stages, in 1976 and 1979, and is considered illegal under international law.
The Polisario Front, Frente Polisario, Frelisario or simply Polisario, is a rebel Sahrawi nationalist liberation movement claiming Western Sahara.
The Madrid Accords, formally the Declaration of Principles on Western Sahara, was a treaty between Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania setting out six principles which would end the Spanish presence in the territory of Spanish Sahara and arrange a temporary administration in the area pending a referendum.
The Southern Provinces or Moroccan Sahara are the terms utilized by the Moroccan government to refer to the disputed territory of Western Sahara. These designations encompass the entirety of Western Sahara, which spans three of Morocco's 12 top-level administrative regions. The term "Southern Provinces" is frequently used on Moroccan state television.
El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed was a Sahrawi nationalist leader, co-founder and second Secretary-General of the Polisario Front.
Tifariti is an oasis town and the temporary capital of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, located in north-eastern Western Sahara, east of the Moroccan Berm, 138 km (86 mi) from Smara and 15 km (9 mi) north of the border with Mauritania. It is part of what Polisario Front calls the Liberated Territories and Morocco call the Buffer Zone. It has been the de facto temporary capital of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic since the government moved there in 2008 from Bir Lehlou. It is the headquarters of the 2nd military region of the SADR.
Mahfoud Ali Beiba Hammad Dueihi was a Sahrawi politician and co-founder of the Polisario Front, a national liberation movement that seeks self-determination for Western Sahara. From 1975 until his death, he lived in an exile in the refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria.
The flag of Western Sahara, also known as the flag of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, uses a national flag consisting of a black, white and green horizontal tricolor charged with a red star and crescent in the center stripe and a red chevron at the hoist. It is used on SADR-controlled areas, while the Moroccan flag is used on the occupied parts of Western Sahara.
The Western Sahara conflict is an ongoing conflict between the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic/Polisario Front and the Kingdom of Morocco. The conflict originated from an insurgency by the Polisario Front against Spanish colonial forces from 1973 to 1975 and the subsequent Western Sahara War against Morocco between 1975 and 1991. Today the conflict is dominated by unarmed civil campaigns of the Polisario Front and their self-proclaimed SADR state to gain fully recognized independence for Western Sahara.
The foreign relations of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) are conducted by the Polisario Front, which maintains a network of representation offices and embassies in foreign countries.
The politics of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic refers to politics of the Polisario Front's proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, a country in North Africa with limited recognition by other states, controlling parts of the Western Sahara region.
Guerguerat is a small village in the far south west of Western Sahara, currently occupied by Morocco. Guerguerat is approximately 11 km (6.8 mi) from the border with Mauritania and 5 km (3.1 mi) from the Atlantic Ocean. Morocco sees Guerguerat as a strategic barrier protecting the European Union from illegal migration and terrorism, and smuggling.
The Western Sahara War was an armed struggle between the Sahrawi indigenous Polisario Front and Morocco from 1975 to 1991, being the most significant phase of the Western Sahara conflict. The conflict erupted after the withdrawal of Spain from the Spanish Sahara in accordance with the Madrid Accords, by which it transferred administrative control of the territory to Morocco and Mauritania, but not sovereignty. In late 1975, the Moroccan government organized the Green March of some 350,000 Moroccan citizens, escorted by around 20,000 troops, who entered Western Sahara, trying to establish a Moroccan presence. While at first met with just minor resistance by the Polisario Front, Morocco later engaged a long period of guerrilla warfare with the Sahrawi nationalists. During the late 1970s, the Polisario Front, desiring to establish an independent state in the territory, attempted to fight both Mauritania and Morocco. In 1979, Mauritania withdrew from the conflict after signing a peace treaty with the Polisario Front. The war continued in low intensity throughout the 1980s, though Morocco made several attempts to take the upper hand in 1989–1991. A cease-fire agreement was finally reached between the Polisario Front and Morocco in September 1991. Some sources put the final death toll between 10,000 and 20,000 people.
Sahrawi nationality law is the law of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic's (SADR) governing nationality and citizenship. The SADR is a partially recognized state which claims sovereignty over the entire territory of Western Sahara, but only administers part of it. The SADR also administers Sahrawi refugee camps.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic:
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) was proclaimed by the Polisario Front on 27 February 1976, in Bir Lehlu, Western Sahara. SADR claims sovereignty over the entire territory of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony; however, at present the SADR government controls approximately 20–25% of the territory it claims. It calls the territories under its control the "Liberated Territories", whilst Morocco claims its territories as the "Southern Provinces".
Mexico–Sahrawi Republic relations are the current and historical relations between Mexico and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). Mexico recognized the SADR on 8 September 1979.
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, also known as the Sahrawi Republic and Western Sahara, is a partially recognized state, recognised by 46 UN member states and South Ossetia, located in the western Maghreb, which claims the non-self-governing territory of Western Sahara, but controls only the easternmost one-fifth of that territory. Between 1884 and 1975, Western Sahara was known as Spanish Sahara, a Spanish colony. The SADR is one of the two African states in which Spanish is a significant language, the other being Equatorial Guinea.
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic–Spain relations are the current and historical relations between the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and Spain.
Within weeks the war ended in stalemate
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