Polisario front breaks ties with Spanish government over Sahara dispute

In a statement released on Monday 11, the rebel Sahrawi nationalist liberation movement claiming Western Sahara stated they would be breaking all ties with the Spanish government.

The news follows Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s visit to Rabat, Morocco, where King Mohamed VI and Pedro Sanchez came to an agreement to gradually reopen the borders between Melilla and Ceuta. Rabat proposes independence and complete autonomy for the region, as it views the Western Sahara as a key part of its Kingdom and on March, 18  Spain stated that it had agreed to publicly recognise Rabat’s autonomy plan for the territory, ending a decades-long stance of neutrality: 

“Spain recognises the importance of the question of Western Sahara for Morocco, as well as the serious and credible efforts of Morocco within the framework of the United Nations to find a mutually acceptable solution. Spain considers the Moroccan autonomy initiative, presented in 2007, as the most serious, realistic, and credible basis for resolving this dispute”.

In a statement released on Monday 11, April, the Polisario Front, abbreviated from the Spanish “Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro” which is a rebel Sahrawi nationalist liberation movement claiming Western Sahara, stated: 

“The Polisario Front has decided to break contacts with the current Spanish government” over its “instrumentalisation of the Western Sahara question in shameful bargaining with the (Moroccan) occupier”.

They stated that this break will last until Madrid “conforms with decisions of international legality, which recognises the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination, and with respect for the borders of their country, as internationally recognised”.

The  Western Sahara desert territory has caused this conflict in interests due to its rich Atlantic fishing waters, phosphate resources, as well as a trade route to lucrative markets in West Africa.

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