Polisario Front Claims Responsibility for Attack on Moroccan Sahara City, Citing ’War’ Against Occupation

"It’s no secret: we are at war (even if) the occupying state does not want to recognize it," Polisario Front representative Sidi Mohamed Omar said Monday at the UN, referring to the attack of last Saturday against the city of Smara which left one dead and three injured, according to Moroccan authorities. The Moroccan ambassador to the UN, Omar Hilale, assured that the four projectiles fired on Smara hit a civilian neighborhood where there is no military base.

Hilale adds that there is no evidence that it was a Polisario attack, promising to submit the results of the investigations on this attack targeting civilians to the UN Security Council. The Moroccan ambassador recalled that since the ceasefire was broken three years ago, the Polisario has focused its attacks only on military targets near the separation wall. In almost three years of hostilities, the Polisario has never attacked civilians, reacted the Sahrawi ambassador, specifying that on the other hand, Moroccan attacks have caused the death of 24 civilians, including Sahrawis, Algerians and Mauritanians.

The attack on Smara occurred a day before the renewal until October 31, 2024 of the mandate of the UN mission in the Sahara (MINURSO). Only Russia and Mozambique abstained on Monday from voting for this renewal, after having unsuccessfully tried to include the self-determination referendum and to ask Morocco to accept a UN human rights rapporteurs mission. The renewal of MINURSO’s mandate is "an act of death for the referendum," said Hilale, arguing that the autonomy plan proposed by the kingdom is the solution to the Sahara conflict.