Current Events
Friday, November 19, 2010The Plight of Western Sahara
by Jayanthi Daniel, Africa.com EditorShare this article:
One of the smallest territories on the African continent is currently the subject of the world’s spotlight, and not for a good reason: Western Sahara, a disputed territory on the edge of the Atlantic coast, is facing a newly violent wave as Moroccan forces subdue protests and attack refugee camps containing Sawaharians, most of whom are supporters of the Polisario Front.
During colonial times, the region of Western Sahara was under Spanish control; that ended in 1975, and the country was partitioned off to neighboring Morocco and Mauritania. The region gained a semblance of independence in 1978 when Mauritania withdrew from Western Sahara, and the Polisario Front, a Sawaharian group focused on bringing impendence and freedom to the entire country, gained control of Mauritania’s portion of the country. Morocco soon invaded that area, and a guerilla war began that lasted until 1991.
Throughout the 1990s and the aughts, the United Nations Security Council has attempted on a number of occasions to broker peace talks between the two sides, with little success. The latest skirmish began at the beginning of the month, when Moroccan forces invaded a camp created in October by protesters from surrounding cities, demanding better housing and safety for the entire country. Forces promptly surrounded the camp and began expelling refugees, with bloodshed.
The shame of this situation is that talks have gone nowhere, time and time again—the last time that Moroccan forces and the Polisario Front sat down was in February 2010, and no decisions were made. Furthermore, some of the Polisario Front’s leaders are not in the region itself, installing themselves in supporting countries like Algeria for safety reasons. Some are now calling this incident a genocide, so it's important that the events in Western Sahara remain in the spotlight. We can only hope that outside influences, such as the U.N., will be able to provide security to innocent civilians who are trapped in the protest camp, and that bloodshed can be minimized.
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