The Polisario movement, which seeks independence in disputed Western Sahara, on Friday started meeting for leadership elections in the shadow of mounting tensions between host Algeria and Morocco, which controls most of the territory.
More than 2,200 members of the movement and 370 foreign guests are attending the five-day congress deep in Algeria’s desert, at a Sahrawi refugee camp named after Dakhla, an Atlantic port city in what is Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara.
The Polisario’s current head, Brahim Ghali, 73, appears to have the backing of Algeria and is expected to be re-elected at the gathering, which comes at a critical time for the movement.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“It’s the first congress since the armed struggle resumed,” said Islam Beissat, the movement’s representative in South Africa.
The conflict dates back to 1975, when colonial occupier Spain withdrew from Western Sahara, sparking a 15-year war between the Polisario and Morocco for control of the territory.
That ended in a 1991 ceasefire deal with the north African kingdom in control of 80 percent of the resource-rich desert territory and the Polisario clinging to hopes of a UN-supervised referendum on independence provided for in the deal.
The referendum has never taken place.
The truce broke down in November 2020 after Morocco sent troops to the far south of the Western Sahara to disperse Sahrawi protesters who were blocking the sole highway to Mauritania and the rest of Africa, which the Polisario says was built after 1991 in violation of the agreement.
A string of deadly incidents since has sparked fears of a return to full-blown conflict.
Morocco sees the entire Western Sahara, home to abundant phosphates and fisheries, and the strategically vital highway to west Africa, as its sovereign territory, and has offered limited autonomy.
Since late 2020, the Polisario says it has been in “a war of legitimate defense” and has declared the entire Western Sahara, including its land, sea and airspace, a “war zone.”
The congress comes as tensions spiral between Morocco and Algeria, which cut all diplomatic ties with its neighbour in August 2021 over “hostile actions.”
The administration of former US president Donald Trump recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the vast Western Sahara desert territory. Emboldened by that support, Rabat has stepped up the pressure on other countries to back its position.
The Polisario is holding its 16th congress under the slogan “stepping up the campaign to make the occupier withdraw and to impose total sovereignty” in the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
The conference marks the end of mandates for the movement’s national secretariat, and for Ghali. He is a founding member and the republic’s president.
“Sahrawi people will have their final word during this congress,” said Oumeima Abdeslam, the movement’s delegate to the UN in Geneva, who denied reports of an internal struggle over Ghali’s successor.
“The post of secretary-general is not the monopoly of anyone,” Abdeslam said. “So far there is no list of candidates for the post. These are just rumors.”
Algerian professor and international law expert Tahar Eddine Ammari said that Ghali would be elected for another term, as “if the congress decides to replace him, the Sahrawi representation would be weakened.”
His continued rule is therefore “a logical choice for the Sahrawi fight to continue,” Ammari said.
However, the movement needs “to adapt to the new international context,” he said, pointing to Spain’s declaration of support early last year for the Moroccan autonomy plan.
In late October, the UN Security Council called on the parties to resume negotiations without preconditions and in good faith “with a view to achieving a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution.”
This solution should provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara, it said.
Its envoy to the region, Staffan de Mistura, has traveled several times to meet with the parties since he was appointed in late 2021, but has made little visible progress.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RIVALRY: ‘We know that these are merely symbolic investigations initiated by China, which is in fact the world’s most profligate disrupter of supply chains,’ a US official said China has started a pair of investigations into US trade practices, retaliating against similar probes by US President Donald Trump’s administration as the superpowers stake out positions before an expected presidential summit in May. The move, announced by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Friday, is a direct mirror of steps Trump took to revive his tariff agenda after the US Supreme Court last month struck down some of his duties. “China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to these actions,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the so-called Section 301 investigations initiated on March 11.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
RSS