The Government of Algeria has launched an international campaign to condemn Morocco for the death of three Algerian civilians in a bombing against a commercial convoy in Western Sahara, an incident that has triggered tension war in North Africa and is already investigating the UN mission for the conflict in the Sahara.
According to the state news agency PAS, the Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ramtane Lamamra, officially reported the attack to the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, to the president of the African Union (AU) Commission, Musa Faki Mahamat, to the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Ahmed Abul Gheit, and Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Yusef Ben Ahmed Al-Othaimeen.
In a common message, the head of Algerian diplomacy showed the enormous anger of his country, underlined “the extreme gravity of the act of State terrorism in question that no circumstance can justify” and warned that such action threatens regional security.
“The recourse by the occupying State to sophisticated weapons and the murderer to obstruct the free movement of commercial vehicles in a territorial space over which it has no rights constitutes an act of flight forward and entails imminent risks to security and stability in Western Sahara and throughout the region”, he stated in the letter, which he also issued to the accredited ambassadors in Algiers.
The letter was drawn up just 24 hours after the Algerian presidency confirmed the rumors about the attack that had been running since Monday and warned, in a harsh statement, that it reserved the right to respond and punish what it considers “an act of cowardice.” and a premeditated bombing by the Moroccan Army in the former Spanish colony, which it has occupied since 1975.
Companions and relatives of the dead truckers contacted by Efe indicated, for their part, that it is not the first incident of this type to occur on a route used for trade between the Algerian city of Ouargla and the capital of Mauritania.
ATTACK UNDER INVESTIGATION
According to the website specialized in the Menadefense region, the two trucks were burned by precision shots fired in broad daylight from a Bayraktar TB2-class drone, made by Turkey, or Hermes 450, made by Israel, which had taken off minutes before from an airbase in the town of Smara, in the territories occupied by Morocco.
The trucks had stopped, apparently due to a breakdown, several kilometers from the separation wall built by Morocco in the territory it occupies and in the vicinity of the desert town of Bir Lehlu, capital of the so-called “liberated zones” and center of military operations of the Polisario Front.
Polisario sources told Efe that MINURSO personnel who are stationed a few kilometers from Bir Lehlu traveled to the scene of the events, where the charred remains of the two trucks are still found, to investigate what happened and submit their own report, regardless of the complaint Algeria and the position of Morocco, which refuses to comment on what happened.
A YEAR OF HIGH TENSIONS
Tension is especially high in the former Spanish colony since a year ago the Moroccan Army entered the demilitarized area of Guerguerat to dismantle a sit-in by Sahrawi civilians who protested against the commercial use made of this border crossing by Morocco and Mauritania, despite that it is a disputed area subject like the rest of Western Sahara to the UN decolonization process.
A few days later, the Polisario Front announced that it considered breaking the ceasefire signed in 1991 with the mediation of the UN and the initiation of harassment actions along the wall built by Morocco, considered the longest in the world.
Since then, the Defense Ministry of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) has issued hundreds of “war reports” and reported several victims on the two opposing sides, amid the silence of Rabat, which denies that there is a war.
In this context, and under pressure from the US and part of the EU, Morocco in September accepted the appointment of Staffan de Mistura as the new UN special envoy for the Western Sahara referendum, since he had been vacant for more than two years for the maneuvers of Rabat, which in May had opposed the Italian-Swedish diplomat after being accepted by the Polisario.
Last week, the UN agreed to extend Minurso’s mandate, in a resolution rejected by both Algeria and the Polisario Front.
