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Western Sahara

Western Sahara’s Decolonization At Crossroads After 50 Years

On November 6, the Sahrawis marked 50 years of occupation by the Moroccan kingdom, and continued resistance by activists, risking street violence, arrests, custodial torture, forced disappearances, and rapes by the occupation’s security forces. The anniversary came at an ominous time for the cause of Sahrawi liberation. The US, UK, and Europe, especially France, are bringing ever more pressure on the international community to legitimize the illegal occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco, which in turn is handing over the occupied resources for Western countries to loot.

COP30’s Agrizone Showcases Companies Responsible For Environmental Crisis

The United Nations Climate Conference COP30, is currently underway in Belém, Brazil and will conclude on November 21. It has become increasingly clear that, just as the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) and several other organizations, movements, collectives, and groups warned, agribusiness is at the forefront of the supposed search for solutions to the environmental crisis. This, in itself, sheds light on the fact that the Conference has become a large business expo, in which the assets will be our territories, communities, and nature.

Polisario Front Warns Against Imposed Solutions In Western Sahara

On Wednesday, the Polisario Front’s foreign affairs representative, Mohamed Yeslam Beissat, warned that they will not accept any “imposed” solutions to the Western Sahara conflict, insisting that it will be up to the Sahrawi people to choose between independence or autonomy within Morocco’s borders. Yeslam Beissat said that holding a referendum is nonnegotiable and that the proposal presented Monday by Polisario leader Brahim Ghali to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opens other alternatives that Morocco and the Sahrawis must negotiate directly. “If Morocco insists on its proposal, it must present it as one of several options for the Sahrawi people to choose from freely.

United Kingdom Endorses Moroccan Control Of Western Sahara

In June, just weeks before home secretary Yvette Cooper proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist group, the UK government reversed longstanding policy by endorsing Morocco’s autonomy plan over Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony that has been under illegal occupation for 50 years. In a joint communique signed by foreign secretary David Lammy and his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita, the UK said the 2007 autonomy plan – which gives the indigenous Sahrawis self-governance under Moroccan sovereignty – was “the most credible, viable and pragmatic basis” to end the years-long conflict between Morocco and the Polisario Front, the political-military movement representing the Sahrawi people.

United Nations Security Council Renews Mission For Western Sahara

What has been described as “Africa’s last colony”, the Western Sahara territory is still waiting to exercise its decades-long desire for national independence and sovereignty. Formerly known as the “Spanish Sahara”, the area has been under the domination of the Kingdom of Morocco since 1975. The liberation movement which grew out of the struggle for freedom is popularly known as the Polisario Front. The organization engaged in an armed struggle and mass political campaign since the 1970s having designated itself as a “government in waiting”.

France Turns To Occupied Western Sahara For Colonial Plunder

“For France”, occupied Western Sahara’s “present and future fall under Morocco’s sovereignty”, declared French President Emmanuel Macron, drawing a standing ovation from the lawmakers he was addressing in the parliament of its former colony Morocco earlier on October 29. “The sole and exclusive sovereign over Western Sahara is the Sahrawi people. [Neither] Macron, nor anyone else, has the right to decide on their behalf,” retorted the government of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), as Western Sahara is officially known.

Exporting Occupation: Israeli Business Is Booming In Occupied Western Sahara

On December 22, 2020, Israel and Morocco officially normalized relations after former President Donald Trump’s administration declared occupied Western Sahara as Moroccan. In the years following, Israeli companies have boosted their business involvement in Western Sahara, suggesting the pair’s cooperation is fueling each other’s land theft. In 1975, Morocco annexed part of Western Sahara – a region indigenous to the Sahrawi people – and its entirety in 1979. Few have accepted these actions: today, 82 countries recognize Western Sahara’s independence, while only the United States recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over the land.

Learn About The Struggle Of The Last Colony In Africa

In the middle of the Sahara desert, half a million people resist and fight for their liberation. Under the slogan “intensify the armed struggle to expel the invader and build sovereignty,” the Polisario Front, the political organization that leads the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), is holding its 16th Congress in Dajla – one of five Sahrawi refugee camps in the town of Tindouf, Algeria. After 30 years of ceasefire, this is the first Congress to be held again in the context of armed confrontation with Morocco. “All the human, financial, and material resources are sent to support the combat on the armed front. Before they were directed to other areas that will continue, but we must focus on the battlefield,” SADR’s Prime Minister Bucharaya Beyun declared. The Sahrawi Republic was founded in 1975, after gaining its independence from Spain.

Struggle For Liberation Of Western Sahara Intensifies

Morocco, Western Sahara - Moroccan forces illegally occupying the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) have come under repeated bombardment by the Sahrawi People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). Moroccan forces currently occupy over 80% of SADR, also known as Western Sahara, which remains classified by the UN as among the last countries still awaiting decolonization. On Friday, December 30, according to a statement by the Ministry of Defense of SADR, the SPLA “targeted the trenches of the occupation soldiers in several areas of the Mahbas sector.” The SPLA bombarded the positions of occupation forces in this region, in the northwest of occupied territory, for the third consecutive day on Friday. Attacks were also reported on December 28 and 29, inflicting “heavy losses in lives and equipment along the wall of humiliation and shame.”

Report: Right Violations And War Crimes By Morocco In Western Sahara

The Collective of Saharawi Human Rights Defenders in Western Sahara (CODESA) released its first annual report on July 28 titled,  “Continuous war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Moroccan occupation against Saharawi civilians. What future for the decolonization process in Western Sahara?” According to Mahjoub Maliha, head of CODESA’s external relations, the report reflects “the gravity and scale of the violations committed by the Moroccan occupation forces against Saharawi civilians.” It records human rights violations and war crimes  committed in the occupied Western Sahara in the period between September 2020 and December 2021. Morocco claimed sovereignty over Western Sahara after Spain withdrew its colonial control from the territory in 1975.

Western Sahara Will Be Liberated!

International institutions have failed the Sahrawi people. Over 100 resolutions adopted by the United Nations have recognized the Sahrawi peoples’ right to self-determination, to no effect. The International Court of Justice condemned Mauritania and Morocco’s claims to Western Saharan land as far back as 1975, but Morocco continues to occupy the land illegally. In 1991, the United Nations promised to hold a referendum on Western Saharan statehood, but that referendum has not yet come to pass. Today, some 200,000 Sahrawis live in conditions of violent occupation in Western Sahara. Another 200,000 live in refugee camps in Algeria near the Western Saharan border and in parts of Western Sahara under the control of the Polisario Front. A 2,700km wall with an estimated seven million landmines separates the two territories.

Algeria To Suspend Friendship Treaty, Imports From Spain

Algeria announced suspension of its two decade-old-treaty of friendship with Spain on Wednesday, June 8. It also announced the suspension of all imports from the European country over its decision to support Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara. The Algerian President’s office said in a statement on Wednesday that it is suspending the long-term treaty with Spain, called the “treaty of friendship, good neighborliness and cooperation,” signed in 2002. A statement issued by the Algerian Banking Association later declared that the government had also decided to suspend imports of all goods and services from Spain. According to the Algerian government, the decision to suspend political, economic, financial, educational and defense ties with Spain was taken after it supported the Moroccan position on occupied Western Sahara earlier this year in March.

The United States Is Supporting A Brutal Occupation In Western Sahara

Immediately following the expulsion of the Spanish colonizers in the mid 1970's, Western Sahara was occupied by Moroccan forces. With support from the United States, those occupiers, who treat the indigenous Sahrawi People very similarly to the way the Israeli occupiers treat the Palestinians, have been committing human rights abuses. Clearing the FOG speaks with Ruth McDonough and Tim Pluta, who have been staying with the family of a human rights defender, Sultana Khaya, since March 15. Ruth began a hunger strike on May 4 to demand an end to the violence against the Khaya's and an investigation into the crimes committed against them. Ruth and Tim describe what people can do to show solidarity with the struggle of the Sahrawi People.

US Citizen Hunger Strikes To Stop Human Rights Abuses In Western Sahara

Washington, D.C./Boujdour, Western Sahara – Ruth McDonough, a US/British citizen, began a hunger strike on Wednesday, May 4, in order to bring attention to human rights abuses occurring in Boujdour, Western Sahara. Dr. Tim Pluta, US/Irish citizen, will be supporting McDonough as caretaker. Both McDonough and Pluta have been guests in the home of the Khaya family since March 15, 2022. Their arrival came on day 482 of an arbitrary detention in which Moroccan agents had periodically broken and entered the Khaya family home, attacked, beaten, and raped Sultana Khaya and her sister, Waara, in front of their 84 year old mother, Mitou. The agents had also destroyed nearly all furniture, cut electrical wires, turned off the water, poisoned the well water, tortured the sisters and injected Sultana with unknown substances, and forcibly prevented visitors entrance to the house.

Spain Abandons Former Colony In The Western Sahara

Spain has announced that it has endorsed a proposal by the Kingdom of Morocco to designate the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) as an “autonomous” region within the North African state. Former United States President Donald Trump in 2020, recognized Moroccan control over the Western Sahara in an attempt to strengthen relations between the Kingdom and the State of Israel. Formerly known as the “Spanish Sahara”, the people of the territory have been demanding national independence for decades. All of the former colonies of Europe within the African continent have sought independence from the former imperialist masters. Although there are 55 African countries which are members of the African Union (AU) and the United Nations, the phenomenon of neo-colonialism has hampered genuine liberation and continental unification.
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