Rabat | Morocco announced that it had launched a military operation in the buffer zone of Guerguerat, near Mauritania, denouncing “the provocations of the Polisario” in Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony with still undefined status.
About 200 truckers have been stranded for about three weeks at this border post, in the extreme south of the desert territory that Morocco and the separatists of the Polisario Front have been fighting for decades, supported by Algeria, despite the efforts of regulations from the ‘UN.
“The Polisario and its militias which entered the area since October 21 have carried out acts of banditry, blocked traffic and continually harassed the military observers of Minurso”, the UN intervention force, specifies a press release from the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The aim of the current operation is to “put an end to the blocking situation” and “restore free civil and commercial movement” on the road leading to Mauritania, according to the same source.
According to a senior foreign affairs official contacted by AFP, civil engineers from the Moroccan army were deployed about ten kilometers from the border post to “plug a breach” in the wall that separates the two camps in the immense desert territory, so as to “make it impossible to access the area”.
For about three weeks, militias, including some 70 armed men “attack truckers, prohibit traffic, carry out racketeering”, according to the same source.
Until then, “Morocco has shown restraint” but “the calls from Minurso and the UN Secretary-General have unfortunately remained in vain”, underlined the senior Moroccan official, asserting that the UN, Mauritania and “other countries involved in the file” had been warned of the operation.
Last week, around 200 Moroccan truck drivers appealed to the authorities in Morocco and Mauritania for help, claiming to be blocked by “militias affiliated with separatists” at the Gerguerat border post.
The Polisario Front threatened on Monday to end the ceasefire agreement with Rabat if Morocco “introduces” troops or civilians into the buffer zone of Guerguerat.
Nouakchott announced on Wednesday that the Mauritanian army had strengthened its positions on the border with Western Sahara “to deal with any eventuality”.
The status of Western Sahara, classified as a “non-autonomous territory” by the United Nations in the absence of a final settlement, has for decades set Morocco against the separatists of the Polisario Front supported by Algeria. Morocco controls more than two-thirds of this vast desert territory, in its western part, along the Atlantic Ocean.
A cease-fire was signed in September 1991 under the auspices of the UN, after 16 years of war.
The negotiations led by the UN and involving Morocco, the Polisario, Algeria, and Mauritania have been suspended for several months.
The region of Guerguerat has already been at the center of strong tensions between the Polisario and Morocco, especially at the start of 2017. The Sahrawi independence activists denounce the existence of this road that Rabat considers essential for its exchanges with sub-Saharan Africa.
