Tensions between Morocco and the Polisario Front deepened in mid-October 2020 whenSahrawi peaceful protesters blocked a controversial road connectingMoroccan-occupied Western Sahara tosub-Saharan Africa. The protesters camped on the road near the small village ofGuerguerat, which passes through a 5-kilometre-wide buffer stripmonitored by the UN. Despite the controversy, the route had grown in economic importance,[8] such that the protest stranded about 200 Moroccan truck drivers on the Mauritanian side of the border.[9] According to the MINURSO, both Morocco and Polisario deployed forces near the area in late October,[10] with Mauritanian forces reinforcing their positions along its border with Western Sahara.[11]
On 13 November, Morocco launched a military operation from theBerm 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 accused the Moroccan security forces of shooting at unarmed civilians in the buffer strip.[12][13] Morocco denied there had been any armed clashes between the sides and said the truce remained in place,[14] while SADR authorities declared the ceasefire over. Clashes spread that same day along theMoroccan Berm, with Morocco claiming that it had repelled a Sahrawi incursion nearAl Mahbes.[15] The SADR declared war on Morocco the next day.[16] Since the beginning of the conflict, both countries have begun mass mobilisation. The SADR Ministry of Defense claims to be carrying out daily bombardments on military objectives along the Moroccan Berm.[17][18][19] It is the first major clash in the region since 1991.[20]
The disputed region ofWestern Sahara is a sparsely populated area mostly comprising desert territories, situated in theMaghreb region of Africa's northwest coast. The region was aSpanish 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 along-running territorial dispute betweenMorocco, supported by a number of its prominent Arab allies, includingSaudi Arabia andJordan,[21] and theSaharawi Republic (SADR), anAfrican Union member state established by the Algerian-backed pro-independencePolisario Front, which is recognized by the United Nations as the legitimate representative of the indigenousSahrawi people.[22] Some commentators have connected Morocco's interests over the region with the idea ofGreater 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.[21] Morocco, claimingTindouf andBéchar provinces, invaded Algeria in 1963, resulting in the briefSand War, which ended in a military stalemate.[23]
The official United Nations map of theMINURSO peacekeeping mission shows that the border crossing atGuerguerat is not among the recognized locations to cross theMoroccan Berm.
While thePolisario Front had waged a low-intensitywar of national liberation against Spanish colonial authorities since May 1973, theWestern Sahara War began in October 1975, just weeks before the death of long-time Spanish dictatorFrancisco Franco, when Moroccan and Mauritanian forces,[24][25] aided by France,[26][27] invaded the Spanish colony. While Mauritania withdrew from Western Sahara and recognized theSaharawi 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.[28] During the war, between 1980 and 1987, Morocco builtsix mostly sand barriers some 2,700 kilometres (1,700 mi) long,[29] and in 1988, both Morocco and the Polisario Front agreed to aUN 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 theUnited Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).[30] After the war, on 6 September 1991, an UN-brokered ceasefire was signed,[31] promising a referendum on self-determination to the Sahrawis.[32] The United Nations has recognising the area as anon-self-governing territory since 1963; it is also the only African territory on the list, making the Western Sahara thelast African territory subject to decolonization.[32][33] Since then, the referendum has been repeatedly delayed;[34] Morocco had refused the terms of the referendum, citing its dissatisfaction with who was allowed to vote,[35] while tens of thousands of Moroccans have emigrated to the region since the 1970s.[21]
Moroccan checkpoint atGuerguerat, established in late 2020Guerguerat blockade in 2020
Guerguerat is a small village located on the southern coast of the region, along theMoroccan National Route 1 leading toMauritania, some 380 kilometres (240 mi) north ofNouakchott, in a buffer zone patrolled by MINURSO;[36] UN's envoy to the region,Horst Köhler, resigned in mid-2019 for health-related reasons.[37] The Polisario Front considers the road illegal since they say it was built in violation of the ceasefire.[38] Tensions yet again deepened between Morocco and the Polisario Front in mid-October, when unarmedSahrawi refugees fromTindouf, Algeria (where Polisario-administered refugee camps house about 100,000 Sahrawi refugees[39]) 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,[40] creating a large caravan of vehicles and blocking traffic in the region.[41]
Morocco, which regards the region as vital to trade withsub-Saharan Africa,[8] accused the Polisario Front of infiltrating the buffer zone and "carrying out acts of banditry" in Guerguerat.[42] The Moroccan authorities also stated that the Polisario Front was harassing UN troops at the crossing, though the UN denied this.[32]
These protesters were later joined by a group of up to 12Sahrawi 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 to 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 to leave the area. Despite claiming it would comply with the request, no withdrawal was observed.[10]
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.[9] According toJeune Afrique, Morocco first appealed to the United Nations to resolve the conflict peacefully, and that although theSecretary-General of the United Nations,António Guterres, approved this request, the situation was not resolved.[43] Guterres himself likewise said that he had launched numerous initiatives to prevent escalation within the buffer zone, but his efforts had failed.[44] On 6 November, MINURSO observed Morocco deploying a large force of 250 vehicles near Guerguerat.[10] On 12 November, Mauritanian forces reinforced their positions along border with Polisario Front-controlled territories.[11]
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Non-military actions taken by Morocco and the SADR
On 13 November 2020, both Morocco and the SADR introduced mass mobilisation.[17][18] The SADR evacuated civilians from the Guerguerat area[45] and introduced acurfew in the territories under its control.[46]
Following the signing of theIsrael–Morocco normalization agreement in December 2020, Morocco has purchased advanced military equipment from Israel including at least 150 drones.[47][48] The use of these drones has been documented in Polisario-controlled Western Sahara where they have killed both SPLA fighters and civilians.[47] Israeli drones are also suspected to have been used to follow the movements of SPLA forces.[49] 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 fromChina andTurkey.[50]
Morocco reportedly used a Chinese-madeWing Loong Is, among a few given as a gift from theUnited Arab Emirates, to kill Addah al-Bendir, the chief of the Polisario's Gendarmerie, in April 2021.[51] Missile fragments examined by theIntercept indicated thatBayraktar TB2 attack drones sold by Turkey have been used on targets in Western Sahara.[48]
Since the start of the clashes, Algeria has reiterated its support for Western Saharan independence.[52] 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, waskilled in 2011. This predicament poses a challenge for the SPLA forces as they have to confront Moroccan forces equipped with more advanced weaponry, including drones.[53]
Despite that, Algeria still cooperates with the SADR by opening up its borders every day to SPLA fighters armed with artillery who shoot at Moroccan positions.[47]
Sahrawi Republic: On 16 November, SADR's minister of foreign affairs Mohamed Salem Ould Salek stated that the end of the war was now linked to the "end of the illegal occupation of parts of the territory of the Sahrawi Republic", and that the war had started as a "consequence of Morocco's aggression and action in Guerguerat".[58]
On 13 November, Sahrawi sources stated that there were mass protests inLaayoune, the unofficial capital of Western Sahara, which isde facto administered by Morocco, against the clashes.[59] The Moroccan media denied these claims, stating that the city's population was in support of the Moroccan forces, citing Laayoune's mayor.[60] Despite that, the NGO media outletÉquipe Media reported that the Moroccan government was exercising a strong police force, and had arrested several activists.[61] The next day, the same source stated that the Moroccan security forces had arrested several demonstrators inSmara.[62]
On 14 November, some Sahrawi tribal leaders issued a joint statement in support of the Moroccan intervention to restore free movement inGuerguerat.[63] More than fifty riders from the Moroccan Bikers Club and the Royal Petanque Club organized a trip fromCasablanca to the Guerguerat border crossing starting on 27 December and ending on 3 January 2021 to express their support for the Moroccan army's move to secure the crossing.[64]
Sahrawi self-determination activistSultana 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.[65] She has been underde 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.[66][67][68]
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South Africa, Algeria andNamibia backed the Polisario Front, accused Morocco of violating the ceasefire and urged the UN to appoint a new Western Sahara envoy to restart talks.[106][107] Algeria also sent 60 tons of food and medical aid to the refugees in Western Sahara.[108] On the other hand, Spain's second deputy prime ministerPablo Iglesias Turrión,[109]Cuba,[110] andVenezuela[111] have stated that they supported theright to self-determination of the Sahrawis.
On 15 November, a group ofSahrawis staged a rally in front of the Moroccan consulate inValencia, Spain. The protestors dismantled theflag of Morocco from the consulate, raising theSADR's flag over the building.[112][113] Spain[114] and Morocco[115] condemned the incident.
TheIslamic State released an official statement criticising Morocco and the Polisario Front for allegedly using religion to justify the use of weapons in the conflict, for which it accused both ofapostasy.[116]
According toInternational Crisis Group's Portuguese analyst 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.[36]
Kingdom of Morocco
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
Royal Moroccan Armed Forces
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