Morocco pulls out of Western Sahara buffer zone

Sahara

Published on Tuesday, 21 March 2017 Back to articles

Berlin, Germany – November 04: Antonio Guterres, High Commissioner for Refugees of UNHCR, attends a press conference in german foreign office on November 04, 2015 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Michael Gottschalk/Photothek via Getty Images)

An official statement from the Moroccan government in late February said that the Kingdom was withdrawing its troops from the Guerguerat section — in Western Sahara’s south west territory approximately 11 kilometres from the border with Mauritania — of the UN Western Sahara buffer zone in the disputed Western Sahara territory.

The troops intervened about a year ago so that the Moroccan army could tarmac the few kilometres of sand track between the Guerguerat border post and the Mauritanian frontier. It was the only section of the otherwise tarmac highway that ran from Tangiers to Dakar and beyond. The Moroccan army was the only agency with the equipment to do the job. However, as it was technically a no man’s land within the UN Western Sahara buffer zone, both the Polisario and Algeria used it as a pretext for brinkmanship confrontations. Fortunately, no violence followed.

The Moroccan army has now withdrawn from the Western Sahara buffer zone, albeit by only a few hundred, but very symbolic, metres. According to reports, the order for withdrawal was given by King Mohamed VI after he was requested to do so by the UN’s new Secretary General, António Guterres.

This withdrawal does not signify any change of policy, although it does remove a potential flash-point. It also indicates a willingness by Morocco to work with the UN and in particular, the new Secretary General. This is a major and very positive step forward after Morocco’s over-reaction to the undiplomatic remark of Guterres’ predecessor, Ban Ki-moon, who called Morocco’s annexation of the Western Sahara buffer zone and territory an ‘occupation’.

It is also being seen in some quarters as a signal of Morocco’s willingness to compromise which, given its willingness to cooperate with the African Union (AU), seems possible. However, whether that is true or not is unlikely to be tested seriously until Algeria has a successor to the ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

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