UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres confirmed, in his report to the Security Council on the Moroccan Sahara, that armed elements of the “Polisario” were indeed present in Guergarate in October and November 2020, defeating the vain attempts of the “polisario” and of Algeria to conceal this truth.
In this context, Guterres informed the Council that since October 22 “reconnaissance operations by helicopter of the Minurso above Guergarate have noted the presence in the buffer strip of 12 members of the Polisario armed in military uniform.
Minurso observers also confirmed the presence of “8 military vehicles, two of which were equipped with heavy weapons” continues the SG in his report which covers the period from September 1, 2020 to August 31, 2021.
A deployment that the “Polisario” tried to justify as an alleged “protection of civilian demonstrators” also present in the buffer zone.
The confirmation of the presence of armed elements of the “Polisario”, among the group of 50 people, including children and women, is overwhelming evidence that this separatist group was using them as human shields to block the passage to Guergarate.
These violations by the “Polisario”, which Morocco has repeatedly denounced, lasted for three weeks during which the so-called “demonstrators” and armed elements of the “Polisario” obstructed all traffic between Morocco and Mauritania, as confirmed in the report of the Secretary General, not allowing access to MINURSO observers.
Likewise, Guterres informed the Council that the “Polisario” was informed, by Minurso, that its presence in Guergarate constituted “a violation of Military Agreement No. 1” by “urging it to withdraw its military personnel. and its buffer strip vehicles ”.
The military presence of the “polisario” in Guergarate last year confirms the position of Morocco, which has never ceased to call on the UN SG, in particular through the letter sent to it by King Mohammed VI, November 12, 2020, to “redouble efforts to quickly and definitively put an end to the intolerable and destabilizing acts of provocation of the Polisario”.
In this same letter, the king, underlines the report of the Secretary-General, indicated that the “Kingdom of Morocco, by virtue of its responsibilities and in full respect of international legality will act in the manner which it considers necessary, in order to safeguard the status of the area and restore free movement ”in Guergarate.
Following the blockade by the separatist armed militias of the “polisario” for more than three weeks, of the road crossing of Guergarate, between the borders of Morocco and Mauritania, in October 2020, Morocco undertook, on November 13, 2020, an action of civil engineering by which he restored, once and for all, the free movement of people and goods in this passage. The peaceful aspect of this intervention of the Royal Armed Forces was noted in the report of the Secretary General of the United Nations which indicated “that no victim was reported to MINURSO in the events of the day” of November 13. , which is a strong denial to the accusations of the “polisario”, whose armed elements fled the buffer zone of Guergarate, following the intervention of the FAR, as confirmed by Guterres.
In addition, the Secretary General of the United Nations has denied all the allegations of the “Polisario” of a so-called war situation on the ground, clearly indicating that this armed group is carrying out hostile actions, of “low intensity”, ” mainly concentrated in the north near Mahbas ”and which have even decreased drastically since January 2021.
Finally, the Secretary General underlines that the FAR systematically respond to provocations and harassment actions by the “polisario” on the ground.
In this context, he referred to the King’s Speech on November 7, 2020, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Green March, in which the Sovereign declared that “the Kingdom would respond, with the greatest firmness and determination, to any practice or attempt aimed at undermining the security and stability of its southern provinces ”.
