Morocco’s UN Envoy Slams Algeria’s Stance on Western Sahara Dispute

"The Kingdom of Morocco regrets that the briefing organized by the Security Council on May 30, 2024, on the situation of refugees and displaced persons in the world, was instrumentalized by the Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Algeria, Amar Bendjama, in his capacity as a non-permanent member of the Council, to advance the biased position of his country on the issue of the Moroccan Sahara, as well as on the disastrous situation that unfortunately characterizes the daily life of the populations sequestered in the Tindouf camps, in Algeria," writes Omar Hilale in his letter dated May 31, noting that his Algerian counterpart was the only one among the Council members to focus on the issue of the Moroccan Sahara, without really addressing the eight humanitarian situations mentioned by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi. Algeria "has been violating the statutory mandate of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for half a century, by prohibiting it from registering these populations, as it does in all refugee situations around the world," denounces the Moroccan diplomat, stating that "the populations of the Tindouf camps are prohibited from leaving these camps, which are surrounded by several security cordons of the Algerian army and services, in addition to the armed militias of the Polisario."

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Also, he stated that "the claim of the Algerian ambassador that his country spares no effort to meet the needs of the Sahrawi refugees is a pure lie." Worse, Algeria "violates the most basic rights of these populations and even deprives them of international humanitarian aid, which is systematically diverted by the leaders of the Polisario armed separatist group and the leaders of the Algerian Red Crescent," he notes. Omar Hilale will add: Algeria "unfortunately politicizes international humanitarian law by subordinating the return of the populations of the Tindouf camps to the Moroccan Sahara, to a so-called referendum. Yet, freely consented return, like other durable solutions, is a humanitarian requirement that cannot be conditioned on any other consideration." The Moroccan diplomat took care to recall that "the so-called referendum referred to by the Algerian ambassador is indeed dead and buried by the Security Council and the United Nations Secretary-General. The Algerian ambassador pretends to ignore that no Security Council resolution has made the slightest reference to a so-called referendum for more than two decades."

Since 2007, the Moroccan autonomy plan for the Sahara has been considered the serious and credible solution in all Security Council resolutions. "The Security Council recommends in all its resolutions the political, realistic, pragmatic, sustainable and compromise solution," specifies the Moroccan ambassador. Moreover, the Council, in its latest resolution 2703 of October 30, 2023, called, in particular, on Algeria, the main party to this dispute, to participate in the third round table, within the framework of the exclusively UN political process, "which Algiers unfortunately refuses, thus preventing the resumption of this political process," he continued.