Tensions Escalate Between Morocco and Algeria Over Western Sahara Dispute

"Relations between the two ’brotherly countries’ have never been a long quiet river. But in recent months, the coldness has given way to outright hostility. The main cause: the eternal Sahara Western issue," summarizes Jeune Afrique. The pan-African weekly noted that Morocco has a head start over Algeria on this 30-year-old file. The diplomatic exploits of the kingdom are legion.

On December 10, 2020, the former President of the United States, Donald Trump, had signed a decree recognizing American sovereignty over the Sahara in exchange for the normalization of diplomatic relations between the kingdom and Israel. Another diplomatic feat: several African countries have opened their consulates in the Sahara. These exploits have annoyed Algeria and its protégé, the Polisario.

While Moroccan diplomacy is achieving exploits, Algerian diplomacy is losing influence. "Even within the African Union, Algeria’s virtual monopoly on the Peace and Security Commission, which allowed it to raise the Sahrawi issue at every meeting of the pan-African organization, is now a thing of the past," notes the author of the article.

"So it is now on the military field that this antagonism of almost fifty years is being deployed. Since the evacuation in mid-November by Moroccan forces of the Guerguerat crossing point, blocked for several weeks by Sahrawi separatists, it is again, if we are to believe the latter, war between Rabat and the Polisario. Not a week goes by without the Front, systematically relayed by Algérie Presse Service (APS), announcing an attack on the Moroccan defense wall, without it being possible to distinguish the share of reality and disinformation," notes the publication.

Jeune Afrique is convinced that neither Algeria nor Morocco wants an open conflict with catastrophic consequences for the two countries. "But history shows that states do not always have absolute control over their own level of aggression: an escalation first controlled quickly degenerates," analyzes the publication.