Brussels 13.11.2020 Morocco announced it launched on Friday, November 13 an operation to end what it assessed as “serious provocations” by the Polisario Front, a rebel national movement which for decades has called for regional independence in Western Sahara. (Image: illustration).

Tensions have been mounting for three weeks between Morocco and the Polisario Front before Rabat launched a military operation at the southern Guerguerat border crossing, where the Polisario has been refusing entry of Moroccan trucks from passing into neighbouring Mauritania.

“In the face of serious and unacceptable provocations by the Polisario militia, in the buffer zone of Guerguerat in the Moroccan Sahara, Morocco decided to act in full respect for the powers vested in it,” the Moroccan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry underlined that Morocco had “no other choice but to assume its responsibilities in order to put an end to the state of obstruction resulting from these movements and re-establish freedom of civil and commercial movement.”
Morocco on Friday announced it launched an operation to end what it called “serious provocations” by the Polisario Front, an Algeria-backed movement which for decades has called for regional independence in Western Sahara.

Tensions mounting for three weeks between Morocco and the Polisario Front precipitated in Rabat’s operation on the southern Guerguerat border crossing, as a result of the group’s barring entry of Moroccan trucks from passing into neighboring Mauritania.

“In the face of serious and unacceptable provocations by the Polisario militia, in the buffer zone of Guerguerat in the Moroccan Sahara, Morocco decided to act in full respect for the powers vested in it,” the Moroccan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry underlined that Morocco had “no other choice but to assume its responsibilities in order to put an end to the state of obstruction resulting from these movements and re-establish freedom of civil and commercial movement.”