Polisario bets on Colombia to push for UN condemnation over the «killing of Sahrawi civilians by Morocco»
The Polisario Front has appealed to the UN Security Council to condemn what it describes as Moroccan attacks against Sahrawi civilians, in the hope of securing the support of Colombia, which holds the Council’s rotating presidency in June. The request was made in a letter dated June 12 from the movement’s representative in New York to the president of the Security Council.
In the letter, Mohamed Ammar alleges that Moroccan drones and artillery targeted civilian vehicles in the Glibat al-Foula area, claiming the strike «completely destroyed civilian vehicles and caused significant material damage».
Despite the reported attack, no Sahrawi gold prospectors were injured. The miners, who originate from the Tindouf camps, continue to operate east of the sand wall under the surveillance of Royal Armed Forces (FAR) drones.
«These Moroccan criminal acts took place during the visit of the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy to Western Sahara», the Polisario representative also stressed.
A diplomatic push toward Bogotá
Mohamed Ammar argued that the situation poses a «threat to regional stability», insisting that «the Security Council cannot remain silent in the face of Morocco’s destabilizing actions, which undermine regional peace and security».
He also called on «all those who expressed deep concern over the targeting of civilians», an apparent reference to the international condemnation that followed the Es-Smara attack, to maintain their position, stressing that «international humanitarian law must apply to everyone without exception, without selectivity and without discrimination».
The initiative comes just days after the death of Lahbib Mohamed Abdelaziz, a Polisario member whose name is not mentioned in the letter. According to the Front’s account, he and three other fighters were preparing an operation against FAR positions when they were killed.
The letter was sent a day after a Palestinian journalist asked Farhan Haq, the UN Secretary-General’s deputy spokesperson, about the circumstances surrounding Abdelaziz’s death. Through this latest move, the Polisario hopes Colombia will convene an emergency Security Council meeting this month to examine what it describes as the killing of «Sahrawi civilians by Morocco», similar to the initiative led by Venezuela during the first El Guerguerat crisis in August 2016.
The diplomatic offensive reflects a strategy previously employed by the Polisario’s main backer, Algeria. In November 2021, Algiers referred to both the United Nations and the African Union the case of Algerian truck drivers killed in a strike it attributed to the Moroccan military.
Since declaring on November 13, 2020, that it no longer considered itself bound by the 1991 UN-brokered ceasefire, the Polisario Front has repeatedly sought to bring incidents occurring east of Morocco’s defense wall before international organizations.