Western Sahara

Several African countries have opened diplomatic missions to Morocco in Western Sahara, a disputed area occupied by Rabat. This has been exacerbating the conflict in an already volatile region seeking independence.

Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak, who once served as the president of the UN General Assembly, is expected to be named the world body’s new special envoy for disputed Western Sahara, diplomats said Wednesday (12 February). The post has been vacant since May 2019, when former German president Horst Kohler stepped down for health reasons.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday renewed the mandate of its MINURSO mission in Western Sahara amid "frustration" on the part of the Polisario Front, which wants independence for the disputed region. The resolution extending the mission for a year was drafted by the United States and received 13 votes in favour with abstentions by Russia and South Africa.

Horst Köhler, who was president of Germany for six years, has left his post as UN envoy for the territory of Western Sahara. His departure on health grounds leaves efforts to resolve a decades-long dispute in limbo.

The U.N. Security Council approved a resolution Tuesday welcoming "new momentum" from the restart of talks on resolving the decades-old dispute over the mineral-rich Western Sahara, but Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front remain deeply at odds over its future. South Africa and Russia abstained in the 13-0 vote, calling the U.S.-drafted resolution unbalanced.

Several days of UN-convened informal talks on the Western Sahara late last month appear to have yielded little towards bringing the decades-long conflict to a close. For many young Sahrawi refugees, a lifetime of failed diplomacy has left them hopeless at what they say is a frozen peace process, a glaring lack of opportunity, and a world that seems to have forgotten they exist.