Madrid, Spain, August 25, 2026 (SPS) – The Representative of the POLISARIO Front in Spain, Abdulah Arabi, denounced the installation by telecommunications company Orange (MasOrange) of an advertising billboard on the AP-7 motorway, on the Elche–Valencia route, which illegally depicts Western Sahara as an integral part of Moroccan territory.
In statements issued in response to the incident, Abdulah Arabi said that the billboard advertises telephone services in Morocco and includes a map depicting the territory of Western Sahara as part of that country. He stressed that this constitutes “an evident violation of international law,” given that Western Sahara is a territory “distinct and separate from Morocco.”
The Sahrawi representative recalled in this regard that the legal and territorial distinction between Western Sahara and Morocco was precisely one of the grounds considered by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in its October 2024 rulings, which annulled the trade agreements between the European Union and Morocco insofar as they applied to the Sahrawi territory.
He further stated that, under international law and European jurisprudence, “any economic activity in the territory must have the consent of the Sahrawi people, expressed through its legitimate representative: The Polisario Front.”
Arabi also warned of the particular seriousness of using such cartographic representations in advertising campaigns, both because they “mislead potential consumers” and because of the large number of people who may be exposed to the message, especially given the billboard’s location on a heavily trafficked road during the summer season.
In response to these developments, the Representation of the Polisario Front in Spain formally conveyed its protest to Orange and requested the immediate removal of the billboard or its replacement with an alternative that does not include a map showing Western Sahara as an integral part of Morocco.
The Sahrawi official warned that such actions, which he described as “increasingly common,” are particularly significant because they “contribute to creating a misleading narrative among the public,” by attempting to normalize through commercial messages a territorial situation that has no basis in international legal recognition.
“Western Sahara is not Morocco. Morocco has illegally occupied Western Sahara since 1975,” Arabi emphasized, denouncing efforts by the Moroccan authorities to assimilate the Sahrawi territory as their own, treat it as though it were part of their national territory, and project that image internationally.
In opposition to this strategy, he maintained that “sovereignty over the territory is indisputable and belongs solely to the people of Western Sahara,” reaffirming that any attempt to alter or normalize the territory’s legal status through faits accomplis, economic activities, or communication campaigns cannot replace the exercise of the inalienable right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination.
In this context, Arabi linked the reported incident to a broader policy aimed at normalizing the occupation and referred to the recent tensions surrounding Ceuta, noting that “after what has happened over the past few weeks in Ceuta, it should have become clear that Morocco’s expansionist ambitions are not directed solely toward the south.”
The Representation of the POLISARIO Front considers that the use of maps incorporating Western Sahara into Moroccan territory is not merely a commercial or advertising matter, but rather contributes to the dissemination and normalization of a territorial reality contrary to international law. It has therefore called on the company to immediately correct the depiction.
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