UN Mission Begins Sahara Withdrawal With 24 Minefields Still to Clear
The United Nations mission in the Sahara begins its withdrawal this Sunday, November 1, while vast areas remain contaminated by explosives. According to the UN’s latest public inventory, 24 minefields and 33 areas affected by cluster munitions still needed to be cleared east of the defensive wall.
The end of MINURSO raises a practical question: who will continue the demining work? In its November 1 statement, the UN announced the start of the liquidation of its mission, whose mandate expired without being renewed. A reduced team is to arrange the repatriation of equipment from contributing countries and the handling of equipment belonging to the United Nations.
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Figures from the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) show the scale of the work remaining. Of 67 recorded minefields, 43 have been cleared. Of 541 areas hit by cluster munitions, 508 have been dealt with. The figures, current as of January 2026, cover areas monitored east of the defensive wall.
Since 2008, the program has made about 150 million square meters of hazardous land safe for use and neutralized more than 30,000 explosive devices. More than 80,000 people, particularly local and nomadic communities, have benefited from awareness-raising activities. These efforts directly affect the safety of civilians traveling through contaminated areas.
A demining program linked to MINURSO
UNMAS is part of the UN mission. After much of its work was suspended in 2020, operations resumed east of the wall in May 2023, and then in the south of the territory in January 2024. The resumption required discussions with the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces and the Polisario Front.
The program is funded primarily through the peacekeeping operations budget, at around three million dollars a year. UNMAS also said it was seeking an additional three million dollars to strengthen accident prevention, victim assistance and local demining capacity.
The statement announcing MINURSO’s withdrawal does not specify what will happen to these activities. For several years, UNMAS has supported the local organization Saharawi Mine Action Coordination Office (SMACO), whose teams have been trained to develop their own capacity to plan and coordinate operations east of the wall.
