UN Report Highlights Polisario's Obstruction in Sahara Ceasefire Efforts

UN Secretary-General’s report lauds Morocco’s commitment to ceasefire and support for UN efforts to reach a political settlement in  Sahara.

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has submitted his annual report on the situation in Morocco’s southern provinces, known as  Sahara, covering the period from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024. The report, released to the UN General Assembly as document A/79/229, details the activities of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Sahara (MINURSO) and diplomatic efforts to advance a political solution.

The document notes that the situation continues to be characterized by “low-intensity hostilities” between Morocco and the separatist Polisario Front. MINURSO investigated several incidents of firing across the defensive berm, with one civilian fatality and three injuries reported from rockets striking Smara in October. The mission also observed casualties from aerial strikes east of the berm.

In an effort to reduce tensions, MINURSO proposed a cessation of hostilities for Ramadan. The Royal Moroccan Army responded on 26 February 2024 by reiterating its commitment to the 1991 ceasefire while underscoring its right to respond to incidents by the Polisario Front. However, Polisario rebuffed the proposal, claiming it ignored realities on the ground.

The report highlights that MINURSO’s logistical challenges east of the berm eased somewhat after Polisario offered “safe passage, on an exceptional and provisional basis” for supply convoys as “a gesture of goodwill.” This enabled the mission to sustain its monitoring presence more reliably.

Efforts to Revive the Stagnating Political Process

Secretary-General Guterres met with Polisario leader Brahim Ghali in New York in September 2023 to discuss the political process and MINURSO’s presence. The UN’s Personal Envoy for Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, consulted extensively with the four parties to the Sahara dispute; Morocco, Polisario, Algeria, and Mauritania, as well as Security Council members and other stakeholders, “with a view to constructively advancing the political process.”

The report details Personal Envoy de Mistura’s diplomatic meetings, including with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita in Rabat in September 2023 and April 2024. “My Personal Envoy noted with appreciation the expressions of support by his interlocutors for the efforts of the United Nations to facilitate a political settlement to the situation in Sahara,” Secretary-General Guterres said in his report.

MINURSO also resumed some of its mine action and land release work during the period covered in the report. However, family reunification visits between Sahrawi refugees and their relatives in Morocco, known as confidence-building measures, “remained on hold,” the report notes.

“Information was received on the humanitarian conditions in the Tindouf refugee camps and the need to ensure the protection of human rights inside the camps,” it adds, referring to the ongoing human rights crisis facing Sahrawis in the Polisario-controlled camps.

This echoes the concerns expressed in last year’s report, which warned about the “further deteriorating humanitarian situation” in the camps, citing challenges like water scarcity, food shortages, malnutrition, extreme weather, poor housing, and environmental degradation.

Sadly, latest reports indicate that these dire conditions persist. In particular, this year has also seen disturbing reports of human rights abuses in the camps. In May, Algerian forces reportedly executed three unarmed Sahrawi youths near the camps who were trying to earn a living amid the desperate circumstances. There have also been accounts of the Polisario exploiting Sahrawi children, from using them as soldiers to sending them abroad under false pretenses for adoption.

Expressing deep concern about developments in the region, the UN Secretary-General stresses that “the deteriorated state of affairs has become entrenched and must urgently be reversed, including to avoid any further escalation.”

The ongoing hostilities and lack of a ceasefire “remain a major setback to the achievement of a political solution to this long-standing dispute,” he says, calling for a ceasefire to be re-established.

Guterres emphatically urges all parties to “approach the political process with an open mind, to desist from preconditions and to seize the opportunity provided by my Personal Envoy’s facilitation and efforts.”

He expresses belief that with good faith engagement from all concerned, strong political will, and international support, “it is possible to find a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution that will provide for the self-determination of the people of Sahara” in line with successive Security Council resolutions.

Morocco has proposed autonomy under its sovereignty as a realistic compromise solution. But Algeria and Polisario have repeatedly rejected this increasingly UN-validated proposal, insisting on an independence referendum.

The Secretary-General’s report makes clear that nearly five decades after this regional dispute erupted, a long-term diplomatic solution remains frustratingly elusive, despite the best efforts of the UN.

It remains to be seen if and how the UN will eventually broker the politically negotiated and compromise-based settlement it has called for since 2002.