Morocco continues to secure its Saharan borders. Launched last March, the Royal Armed Forces completed construction of a new belt intended to close a breach at the Moroccan-Algerian border. The security wall was advanced 17 km towards Tindouf.
More specifically, the area affected by this extension is located near the town of Touizghi south of Akka, known to be the scene of a battle in January 1980 between the FAR and the Polisario, and the Ouarkziz mountains. This expansion was decided as part of the measures taken by the FAR command in the wake of the November 13 intervention in El Guerguerate. A process that began, from the departure of the elements of the Polisario, with the construction of a sand barrier.
The firing of four rockets, carried out on January 23 by members of the Front near El Guerguerate, in fact accelerated the operation of locking the points which previously allowed the Polisario to launch attacks.
In previous statements to Yabialdi, Bahi Larbi Ennass, a former senior Polisario officer who returned to Morocco and now president of the Center for Peace and Political and Strategic Studies based in Laâyoune, had proposed to extend the belt to the south of Tifarti to Amghala all along the border with Mauritania. These are porous borders and the realization of this extension will be a message from Rabat addressed to Nouakchott to put it in front of its responsibilities”, he explained.
