February 2017

Washington, Feb 25, 2017 (SPS) - About ten US senators and members of the US House of Representatives will pay a visit to the Sahrawi refugee camps on Sunday, Polisario Front's representation and Algerian diplomats in Washington told APS.
The US Congress delegation will meet with Sahrawi officials and see by themselves the situation in which Sahrawi refugees have been living for 40 years, in exile with no prospect of ever returning to their homeland, which is occupied by Morocco.

London, Feb 25, 2017 (SPS) - The British organization for human rights defence in Western Sahara, Adala UK, denounced Friday the use of torture by Morocco against Sahrawi civilians who oppose Moroccan colonization of their country, and called for investigations into those complaints.
Adala UK wrote on its website that Morocco continues to use "torture" and its "constant" human rights violations in Western Sahara make the situation in which Sahrawi are living "critical."

Brussels, February 24, 2017 (SPS) -The European Union (EU) should seize the opportunity of Morocco’s accession to the African Union (AU) to reopen negotiations between the Sahrawi authorities and Morocco with a view to resolving the conflict, said EU MP Diane Dodds.

New York (U.S.A) February 23, 2017 (SPS) - The Security Council, which gathered Wednesday, expressed its concern about the deadlock in Western Sahara peace process and the security risk in El Guergarat buffer zone.
“Several members of the Security Council, including permanent members, expressed their preoccupation concerning the lack of negotiations between the two parties to the conflict,” the Polisario Front representative to the United Nations (UN) Ahmed Boukahri told APS at the need of this meeting held in camera.

London, February 23, 2017 (SPS) - The Moroccan Authorities continued to repress the peaceful demonstrations in Western Sahara in 2016, and to expel journalists, foreign activists and human rights activists and to bar them entry to this territory, said the latest annual report of Amnesty International, published on Tuesday.

Chahid El Hafed (Sahrawi refugee camps), February 22, 2017 (SPS) - Secretary General of Polisario Front expressed his concern about United Nations Security Council’s “inertia” in the face of the “violation by Rabat” of the international law, calling on the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to continue the decolonisation process in Western Sahara.

Brussels, February 22, 2017 (SPS) -  The members of the European Parliament have urged the European commission to comply with the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) which excluded last December Western Sahara territories of the EU-Morocco Association Agreement.

Maputo (Mozambique), February 22, 2017 (SPS) -The President of the Republic , Secretary General of the Frente POLISARIO, Mr. Brahim Gali, arrived on Tuesday to the State of Mozambique in a three-day State Visit, officially invited by the President his country, Mr. Filipe Nyusi.
 
The President of the Republic was received at the Maputo military airport by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Mozambique, Mr. Oldemiro Baloi and several other ministers besides the Mayor of Maputo and other political figures and media.
 

London, February 21, 2017 (SPS) - Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) denounced the illegal oil exploration by the Swiss company Glencore off the coast of the occupied territory of Western Sahara.
WSRW underlined in a communiqué that “Glencore” is accelerating the oil exploration off the coast of occupied Western Sahara, underlining that the company conducted other seismic surveys and concluded a renewable agreement on a block offshore the occupied territory.

Chahid Elhafed (Saharawi Refugee Camps), February 21, 2017 (SPS) - Saharawi Government condemned Monday Morocco's "policy of threat and blackmail" against the European Union for its legal positions over the conflict of Western Sahara.
The Saharawi government, in a statement published Sunday, said Morocco uses illegal immigration as a blackmail tool," the government said through the Saharawi Communication's statement.

Algiers , February 20, 2017 (SPS) -  Experts and specialists in international relations affirmed that Morocco needed the African Union (AU) for its weight and its influence on the international scene just as it is confined to international isolation because of its obstinacy that it showed throughout the process of political settlement of the conflict in Western Sahara.
The African Union was founded on intrinsic principles that are the identity of the African people and the history of their fight, said the experts.

Algiers, February 20, 2017 (SPS) - The Sahrawi people remain firmly committed to the implementation of the decolonization process in its occupied territory, in particular after Morocco admission to the African Union (AU) and the ensuing commitments for the compliance with the Pan-African Organization's rules and the freedoms of African peoples.

New York (U.S.A), February 19, 2017 (SPS) - The American Think Tank Roosevelt House organized in New York, a discussion panel on Western Sahara, the last colony in African to break the silence around the Human rights violations imposed by Morocco in the occupied territories.
The round table gathered representatives of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and American associations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW), Democracy Now and Watching Western Sahara.

London, February 19, 2017 (SPS) - The Sahrawi people have not yet seen any sign from the Moroccan side to put an end to its occupation of the Western Sahara territory, the Frente POLISARIO delegate to the United Nations Ahmed Boukhari told British television, BBC.
“We have not yet seen, from Morocco, encouraging public declarations that could indicate Rabat’s willingness to put an end to the conflict in Western Sahara against POLISARIO,” said Boukhari.

Chahid El hafed (Saharawi Refugee Camps), February 18, 207 (SPS - The President of the Republic,Secretary General of the Frente POLISARIO, Mr. Brahim Gali, urged the UN Security Council to assume its responsibilities in the implementation of the United Nations settlement plan in Western Sahara.
Gali expressed the hope that the Security Council support MINURSO to carry out its tasks and assume its responsibilities in organizing a referendum on self-determination for the Saharawi people.
 

Brussels (Belgium), February 18, 2017 (SPS) - The Western Sahara Intergroup in the European Parliament will soon address the European Commission to request the “effective” implementation of the Court of Justice of the European Union’s ruling “without equivocations or political detours,” said Friday the Sahrawi Deputy Minister for Europe Mohamed Sidati.

Washington, February 17, 2017 (SPS) - The Security Council will hold on 22 February a meeting on the situation in Western Sahara whose peace process is at standstill since 2012, the representative of the Frente POLISARIO at the United Nations Ahmed Boukhari told APS on Thursday.
The meeting, to be held behind closed doors, was scheduled at the request of Uruguay, non-permanent member of the Security Council, he said.

Algiers, February 16, 2017 (SPS) -The secretary general of the National Union of Algerian Women (NFA), Nouria Hafsi, on Wednesday reiterated in Algiers her organization's support for the Saharawi cause and the struggle of Saharawi women, calling for The combination of efforts, particularly at the international level, for the restoration of the rights plundered in the last colony in Africa.

Madrid, February 16, 2017 (SPS) - The president of CEAS-Sahara, Mr. José Taboada said Wednesday that the Intergroup on Western Sahara must "boost" the different solidarity initiatives and be "the voice" of the Saharawi people, "according to the newspaper Diario.es.
The Intergroup on Western Sahara has been constituted on Wednesday by the Congress of Deputies and will have among its first tasks to promote an institutional statement to express the resolve to solve the conflict in Western Sahara, according to the same source.

Algiers,  February 16, 2017 (SPS) - French human rights activist Claude Mangin-Asfari denounced Wednesday, in Algiers, the “blackout” imposed by the western media, notably French, on the Sahrawi issue, calling them to shed light on the Moroccan abuses and violations against the Sahrawi people.