Shaheed El Hafed, 18 July 2026 (SPS) – Member of the National Secretariat of the Polisario Front, President of the National Council, Mr. Bachir Mustapha Sayed, sent an urgent letter to the President of the Pan-African Parliament, Dr. Fatah Boutbig, calling for urgent African action to protect the lives of Sahrawi political prisoners on hunger strike in Moroccan prisons and to put an end to the grave and ongoing human rights violations in the occupied Western Sahara.
In his letter, the President of the National Council affirmed that the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is following with deep concern the serious deterioration in the conditions of Sahrawi political prisoners, several of whom are staging open-ended hunger strikes in protest against their detention conditions and the mistreatment, isolation, medical neglect and denial of basic rights guaranteed by international conventions to which they are subjected.
The letter highlighted the deteriorating health condition of Sahrawi political prisoner Naâma Abdi Moussa Asfari, one of the prisoners from the Gdeim Izik group, who is continuing into his second month of an open-ended hunger strike. It warned that the continued disregard for his legitimate demands could place his life at real risk.
The letter also noted that a number of prisoners from the Gdeim Izik group had joined the hunger strike in solidarity with Asfari, considering that this portends serious humanitarian consequences amid the continued policy of collective punishment and individual retaliation pursued by the Moroccan occupying authorities against Sahrawi political prisoners.
The President of the National Council clarified that the abuses suffered by Sahrawi political prisoners form part of a broader pattern of violations in the occupied Western Sahara, which, according to the letter, also target human rights defenders, journalists and civil activists, amid restrictions on fundamental freedoms and a lack of accountability.
He reaffirmed that the continuation of these violations is linked to the denial of the Sahrawi people's inalienable right to self-determination, in accordance with the provisions of United Nations charters, the Constitutive Act of the African Union and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.
The President of the National Council called on the Pan-African Parliament to take a number of urgent measures, including issuing a position calling for the protection of the lives of prisoners on hunger strike and ensuring that they receive the necessary medical care; urging the Moroccan authorities to comply with international humanitarian law and international human rights law; dispatching an African parliamentary fact-finding mission to investigate the conditions of Sahrawi political prisoners and assess the human rights situation in Western Sahara; and supporting UN and African efforts aimed at enabling the Sahrawi people to exercise their right to self-determination.
The President of the National Council concluded his letter by stressing that the continuation of the open-ended hunger strike amid the rapidly deteriorating health conditions of the prisoners requires urgent African and international action. He warned that any delay in intervention could lead to serious humanitarian consequences, while reaffirming his confidence that the Pan-African Parliament will assume its responsibilities in defending human rights and upholding the principles upon which the African Union was founded.
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