Euro Weekly – By Jennifer Leighfield
MOROCCO has allegedly extended its defence wall with the Western Sahara by 50 kilometres.
The wall is just three kilometres from the border with Algeria and the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf around a rural commune called Touizgui located in the extreme southeast of Morocco.
According to information on social media, the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces (FAR) have reportedly carried out the work in the area internationally recognized as Moroccan.
A video released by an unofficial Moroccan Royal Armed Forces (FAR) YouTube channel shows satellite pictures of the construction.
It has not been officially confirmed by the FAR or by the government, but it would have reportedly been done to prevent infiltrations and attacks by the Polisario Front.
The Moroccan authorities speak of it preventing drug trafficking and illegal immigration.
The conflict between Morocco and Western Sahara is still active and neither side shows any intention of surrendering.
The FAR do not rule out building further south and bringing the sand wall, which is currently 2,700 kilometres long, as far as the border with Algeria. If this happens, it would do away with the “buffer zone” that separates the Moroccan-controlled Sahara from what the Polisario calls “liberated territories”, a name that Morocco has always contested but which the UN takes into account when describing this area.
Another area of the “buffer zone” the Guerguerat pass, in the extreme south of the Sahara on the border with Mauritania, caused the last conflict with the Polisario Front.
They which declared war on Morocco last November when the Moroccan army forcibly evicted dozens of Polisario supporters who were blocking the passage.
The attacks from the Polisario Front against the Moroccan Army, which have been considered “harassment” by the Moroccan government, were near the area where the wall has been built.
