UN Peacekeepers Evacuate Western Sahara Buffer Zone Amid Rising Tensions

According to the newspaper Alqods al Arabi, the situation is more than explosive at the level of the buffer zone. The Polisario Front would have mobilized what it calls "civil society activists" to invest in the passage between Morocco and Mauritania. Its leaders would even have threatened the kingdom with war, if one of the 33 members is detained.

The Polisario’s excesses have not been limited to the Guerguerat border post, the media points out, but would have even reached the Atlantic coast, thus separating the town of Lagouira from the area. A situation that explains King Mohammed VI’s response during the Green March speech. In this context, the Sovereign reiterated the categorical rejection of the unacceptable actions "by which an attempt is made to hinder the fluidity of traffic between Morocco and Mauritania, to alter the legal and historical status prevailing east of the security wall or to engage in illegitimate exploitation of the region’s resources".

In this tense context, Morocco and Mauritania have deployed their military forces at the level of the Guerguerat area, while the Polisario militias have positioned themselves on several points behind the separation wall. The role of Minurso, discredited since the departure of its last envoy Horst Köhler a year and a half ago, has been reduced to nothing. The UN mission, according to the same source, would have failed to contain the situation in the region.