The Southern African Liaison Office

The Southern African Liaison Office

International liaison, dialogue and research.

Western Sahara News Briefs 

Western Sahara – 24 June 2016

SALO

Morocco offers to let some UN Western Sahara mission staff back

Morocco has proposed allowing around 25 civilian staff to immediately return to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in disputed Western Sahara in a sign that tensions between Rabat and the U.N. may be easing, diplomatic sources said on Friday.

Earlier this year, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon used the word “occupation” to describe Morocco’s annexation of Western Sahara in 1975, when Rabat took it over from colonial power Spain. Infuriated by what it saw as a shift away from a neutral position, Morocco expelled dozens of U.N. staff working for the mission there known as MINURSO.

Reuters

 

Morocco Seeks to End Peace Process, Says Boukhari

Morocco has chosen the course of confrontation with the international community to end the United Nations-led peace process, said Polisario Front’s Representative to the UN Ahmed Boukhari.

In his address at the session of the Special Committee on Decolonization, held in New York on Friday, Boukhari said that the colonizing power has chosen the option of confrontation with the international community to end the peace process and push the region into the worst-case scenarios.

AllAfrica.com