The UN envoy for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, is traveling to Tindouf, Algeria, on Friday to meet Polisario Front officials, a UN spokeswoman said.
“As part of a series of visits to meet all the interlocutors in the region”, the envoy “is going to Tindouf today to meet the leaders of the Polisario Front”, indicated Eri Kaneko. indicated at the start of his visit, the envoy always looks forward to deepening consultations with all parties concerned on the prospect of constructively advancing the political process in Western Sahara,” she added. She said further regional visits would be “announced in due course”.
In early July, Staffan de Mistura had traveled to Rabat to meet with Moroccan officials but had given up a visit to Western Sahara, hoping to be able to do so on future visits to the region. The question of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony considered a “non-autonomous territory” by the UN, has for decades pitted Morocco against the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front, supported by Algiers.
Rabat, which controls nearly 80% of this territory, is proposing an autonomy plan under its sovereignty. The Polisario is calling for a self-determination referendum under the aegis of the UN, planned when a ceasefire was signed in 1991 but never materialized. Appointed in November, Staffan de Mistura made his first tour in the region in January, which took him to Rabat, Mauritania, Algiers and Tindouf in Algeria to meet the Polisario there.
