Western Sahara

News in Brief

The EU court of justice is due to rule just after we go to press on the legality of two EU agreements with Morocco that cover the land and waters of Western Sahara.

Morocco invaded Western Sahara in 1975 and has illegally occupied the territory ever since.

In 2016 and 2018, the EU court of justice decided that the resources of Western Sahara could not be included in EU-Morocco agreements because they had been reached without first obtaining the consent of the people of Western Sahara.

Under international human rights law, the court may well say that the EU-Morocco trade and fisheries agreements are illegal, causing headaches for the EU commission and EU governments.

This summer, Algeria and Morocco ramped up their conflict over Western Sahara. Algeria withdrew is ambassador in July and broke off diplomatic relations on August. In late September, Algeria closed its airspace to all Moroccan planes, civilian and military.

Algeria is the main supporter of the Western Sahara’s national liberation movement, Polisario, and home to 170,000 Sahrawi refugees. Polisario ended its ceasefire with Morocco a year ago after Moroccan security forces attacked Sahrawi demonstrators in a buffer zone on the southern border.

One cause of the latest Algeria-Morocco friction is a speech by the Moroccan ambassador to the UN in mid-July. Omar Hilale backed the separatist struggle of people in the Kabyle region of Algeria, saying it was hypocritical of Algeria to suppress Kabyle and support Western Sahara.

Another cause was the Pegasus scandal. Algeria discovered that Morocco had used the Israeli technology to spy on the mobile phones of at least 6,000 Algerians, including the heads of Algerian intelligence and top military commanders.