First Independent Mena Newspaper
Experts, journalists and civil society activists continue to decry the appalling situation of the population sequestered in the Polisario-controlled Tindouf camps in Algeria. On Saturday, it was from Dakhla that Spanish political expert Pedro Ignacio Altamirano called for “the urgent opening of a humanitarian corridor” in order to allow the populations in captivity in […]
The European Union is called upon to play a “leading role” in reviving talks between the parties for the final settlement of the conflict over the Sahara, underlined former Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio. The status quo in the Sahara – and in the Maghreb more broadly – cannot last, noted the former Spanish […]
Mauritania’s President Mohamed ould Cheikh El Ghazouani has refused to receive a Polisario emissary who is in Nouakchott for five days, reported le360.ma, saying that the move irked Algeria which continues to pull the strings of the separatist militia. The Polisario envoy, Mustapha Sayed, has been in Nouakchott for five days without being able to […]
Morocco has reiterated its call on the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to put pressure on Algeria to lift its blockade on the Tindouf camps where it has relegated the fate of thousands of Sahraouis to a separatist militia that trades in their suffering. Speaking before the 80th meeting of the UNHCR Standing Committee, Morocco’s representative […]
Peer-to-peer bitcoin trading platforms have seen a rise in users from Morocco over the last three years despite a ban by the central bank of cryptocurrencies, coindesk.com said. Quoting LocalBitcoins Chief Marketing Officer Jukka Blomberg, the website said that February 2021 was the platform’s “best month ever” in Morocco in terms of trading volumes, adding […]
By March 18, Moroccan farmers have amassed whatever they could take after Algerian authorities addressed them an ultimatum to leave a border area near Figuig which they have cultivated for generations. They are victims of arbitrary colonial borders on the one hand and of an Algerian hostile regime to anything Moroccan, on the other. A […]
Morocco has called for urgent actions to alleviate the suffering of Sahraouis held against their will in the Polisario-administered camps under the complicit gaze of Algeria. Speaking at an international conference in Rabat, head of the government Saad Dine El Otmani put special emphasis on the need to protect vulnerable social groups such as women. […]
Following Morocco’s move to secure once and for all the Guerguarat border crossing with Mauritania, most international reactions have been to Rabat’s favor, wrote Crisis Group, an international conflict prevention NGO. “Despite Polisario’s mobilization, most international reaction to the events in Western Sahara has either reflected support for a swift return to the ceasefire and/or […]
International conflict-prevention NGO, Crisis Group, raised in a detailed report Algeria’s main role in perpetuating the Sahara conflict and in arming the Polisario separatists. “Algeria supports Polisario’s military strategy of attrition,” wrote the NGO in a report that zooms on the recent developments of the Sahara issue. “While there is no evidence of new weapons […]
Prominent Portuguese figures have called on their government and the European Union to support Morocco in the Sahara issue and to back the kingdom’s territorial integrity. In a letter addressed to Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, in his capacity as President of the Council of the EU, a group of former and current Portuguese officials […]