Image: SABC News
Africa – The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara, MINURSO, has ended after 35 years. Russia vetoed a US-sponsored draft resolution proposing a one-year extension, and the Council then rejected a Russian alternative.
The mission was set up to monitor a ceasefire and facilitate a referendum on self-determination for the Sahrawi people, a vote that never took place.
Activist and lawyer Magdalene Moonsamy said the mission ended after Resolution 2797, adopted last year, extended MINURSO’s mandate to the end of October 2026. She said the UN first proposed a three-month extension before it negotiated it to 12 months, so the outcome should have been anticipated.
“The absence of an international on-the-ground presence carries severe risks. It removes what little independent international oversight existed to monitor the fragile situation,” Moonsamy said.
Rights Remain, But Risks Grow
After the mission ended, the UN called on all parties to respect and promote the rights of the people of Western Sahara. Without a renewed mandate, the legal basis for MINURSO’s operations, including ceasefire monitoring and mine action, becomes uncertain.
Moonsamy said the end of a mission did not strip the Sahrawi people of their right to self-determination, but warned that people already living in harsh desert conditions would be left more exposed.
She said those in the refugee camps had felt safer while MINURSO was present, and that the mission would have helped speed up a population count for any referendum. She said the Polisario Front could now be forced into further military conflict, but that the dispute could not be treated as a military matter alone.
“It’s a humanitarian crisis that you cannot allow to escalate… we are going to find ourselves in a situation where we get out of one battle, and we go into a war. And this is what we’re trying to avoid,” she said.
A Conflict Reignited
Hostilities resumed in November 2020, when Morocco sent troops into the UN-monitored buffer zone to end Polisario supporters’ three-week blockade of the strategic Guerguerat road, and Polisario withdrew from the ceasefire in response. Morocco said its operations were limited and that the ceasefire remained in effect.
Moonsamy said Morocco had built a landmine-infested wall across the desert, and that some families divided between the two sides had not seen each other for 30 or 40 years. She said the African Union recognises Western Sahara.
“So yes, it is the last colony in the African continent. And when we say colony, we mean that… the most unique thing about it is it’s colonised by an African country,” she said.
