Algeria unhappy with Security Council Resolution on Sahara

Algeria expressed its resentment about the recent UN Security Council resolution on the Sahara which confirmed Algiers’ role in the conflict.

Resolution 2494 extends the mandate of the UN mission in the Sahara MINURSO by another year breaking away with a short interruption in which its mandate was only renewed by six months under pressure from pro-Polisario former US President security adviser John Bolton.

The resolution was slammed as unbalanced by Algeria’s official news agency APS calling it a “simple technical renewal.”

Algeria which created and armed the Polisario separatists was hoping to see a pro-separatist resolution that undermines Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara territory.

Yet, the resolution was very clear in pointing to Algeria’s responsibility in perpetuating the conflict by citing human rights breaches in Tindouf camps and stressing the need to put an end to the abhorrent living conditions suffered by the Sahraouis in the Algerian territory.

Morocco has on multiple occasions put Algeria before its responsibilities in Tindouf where Algiers has forsaken a part of its territory to a separatist militia that trades in the suffering of thousands of Sahraoui refugees.

The Resolution put emphasis on the need to address the lack of the freedom of expression and association in the Tindouf camps. This comes after a brutal crackdown on dissent in the camps this year that was met with outspoken condemnation by international rights NGOs and utter silence by Algiers.

Resolution 2494 also calls for an active engagement in good faith without preconditions and encourages the resumption of consultations by Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, and Polisario.

The Algerian news agency refuses however to admit the reality and continues to call Algeria an observing country.

In the oil and gas-rich country that hosts the camps where thousands of Sahraouis are held against their will and prevented to return to Morocco, the UN noted “with deep concern the continued hardships faced by Sahraoui refugees and their dependency on external humanitarian assistance, and further noting with deep concern insufficient funding for those living in Tindouf refugee camps and the risks associated with the reduction of food assistance.”