Western Sahara

The European Union is undermining the Western Sahara peace process.

On 16 January, the European parliament agreed that a new trade deal between the EU and Morocco would extend to the resources of Western Sahara, despite a 2016 European court of justice (ECJ) ruling against such exploitation.

Green MEP, Heidi Hautala, a vice-president of the European parliament, denounced the deal.

Western Sahara has been illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975. The ECJ…

More than 7,000 people marched for a free Western Sahara in an annual march in Madrid on 17 November.

While Western Sahara continues to be illegally occupied by neighbouring Morocco, it is illegal to extract resources from the territory (because there cannot be consent from the Saharawi people).

Irish/UK oil company San Leon Energy, registered on the Alternative Investment Market in London, is the only company to have drilled onshore for oil in Western Sahara during 43…

Geoex Ltd, a geological services company based in Kent, has been helping Moroccan state oil company OHNYM survey for gas and oil off the coast of Western Sahara. Western Sahara has been illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975, making such exploration illegal as it takes place without the consent of the Saharawi people.

Western Sahara Resource Watch wrote to Geoex in July urging it to stop acquiring or selling Saharawi seafloor data .

(Seismic study group TGS-Nopec…

Regular readers will know that Polisario, the liberation movement for Western Sahara (illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975), managed to get a cargo ship full of phosphate rock (illegally mined in the territory) impounded by a court in South Africa last year.

We now know that the ship, the NM Cherry Blossom, will no longer carry phosphate from Western Sahara. Western Sahara Resource Watch calculates that the company that charters the ship lost £3.5m because of the year…

In May, a Moroccan state mining company, OCP, bought back phosphate that it had illegally mined in, and shipped from, Western Sahara. Western Sahara has been illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975.

The 50,000 tonnes of phosphate rock was seized in South Africa by court order a year ago (PN 2606 – 2607). It was put up for auction back in March, with a starting price of $1 million. The proceeds were due to go to Western Sahara’s national liberation movement, the Polisario Front.…

On 21 March, the European Union commission announced that it still wants to apply an EU-Morocco fisheries agreement to the waters of Western Sahara, despite two EU court of justice rulings that this would be illegal.

On 27 February, the court of justice ruled that the fisheries agreement would only be legal if it was not applied to Western Sahara, which has been illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975. This was in line with a previous decision in December 2016 that no EU trade…

PN also keeps watch on the struggle for freedom in Western Sahara, illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975.

Solidarity campaigners has been targeting foreign companies involved in the illegal exploitation of Saharawi resources. In the last few months, several have pulled out.

The giant Swiss/British multinational Glencore finally left on 4 January (it had been exploring for oil). The Canadian firm Nutrien announced on 25 January that it would no longer buy…

On 6 September, the European court of justice (ECJ) heard oral arguments on EU imports from Morocco of goods originating from, or processed in, Western Sahara.

Morocco has illegally occupied Western Sahara since 1975, and exports stolen Sahrawi resources including vegetables, fish, solar energy and phosphate. It has also licensed oil exploration.

The ECJ case was brought by the UK Western Sahara Campaign (WSC), which brought a case that the British government was…

On 13 July, the occupied people of Western Sahara won a major victory when the Moroccan state company OCP dropped its claim to 55,000 tonnes of phosphate rock mined in the territory.

The rock was on board the NM Cherry Blossom, which was detained in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, on 1 May, on its way to New Zealand. The Sahrawi liberation movement Polisario argued the phosphate had been illegally removed as the operation did not have the consent of the people of Western Sahara.…

On 18 May, cargo ship Ultra Innovation was stopped going through the Panama canal while carrying 55,000 tonnes of phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara to Canada.

A few days earlier, the NM Cherry Blossom, carrying 50,000 tonnes of Sahrawi phosphate to New Zealand, was halted in South Africa by a local court.
These were (perhaps temporary) legal victories for Western Sahara’s national liberation movement.

Polisario argued in court that the exports…

Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy has been carrying out more seismic studies with its partner Kosmos Energy off the coast of occupied Western Sahara, says Western Sahara Resources Watch (WSRW).

The territory has been illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975, and drilling for oil in Western Sahara is illegal without the consent of the Saharawi people.

WSRW has also drawn attention to UK-French ‘ethical investment’ company Vigeo Eiris, which has certified green bonds for two…

In mid-January, EU and French authorities were asked to seized the cargo of a ship accused of bringing fish oil from occupied Western Sahara to France.

Polisario, the national liberation movement of Western Sahara, argued that the shipment was illegal following a 21 December ruling by the European court of justice.

The ECJ decided that trade agreements between the EU and Morocco do not apply to the territory of Western Sahara, illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975.…

While hosting the COP22 climate talks, Morocco boasted about its green credentials. However, ‘An increasing part of the renewable energy programmes that Morocco is promoting – even on the official COP22 website – are not taking place in Morocco at all, but in Western Sahara, which it illegally and brutally occupies’, warns a new report from Western Sahara Resource Watch.

Last year, the Moroccan government illegally extracted over one million tonnes of phosphate from Western Sahara…

Both Morocco and the Polisario Front of Western Sahara suffered reverses on 13 September. An EU legal official declared in an advisory opinion that the waters and lands of Western Sahara are not part of Morocco (after 41 years of illegal occupation), and therefore could not be covered by any EU-Morocco trade agreements.

However, advocate general Melchior Wathelet also ruled that the Polisario Front (Western Sahara’s national liberation movement/government-in-exile) was not the…

A huge investment fund has divested from two oil companies because of their role in the illegal exploitation of the oil resources of Western Sahara (illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975).

Norway’s $835bn sovereign wealth fund dropped Cairn Energy (based in Edinburgh, Scotland) and Kosmos Energy (from Dallas, Texas, USA), after a report from an independent council of ethics.

There was an authoritative legal opinion on this in 2002, given by ambassador Hans Corell,…