Washington, 23 October 2026 (SPS) – Former UN Personal Envoy for Western Sahara Christopher Ross has warned that imposing a unilateral solution on the Sahrawi people while denying their right to self-determination would undermine prospects for peace and perpetuate insecurity across North Africa.
In a new analytical article published amid this week's Security Council discussions on the future of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), Ross criticised efforts by the United States and France to promote autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty as the sole solution, effectively excluding independence as an option.
Ross noted that the Polisario Front, the internationally recognised representative of the Sahrawi people, had rejected this approach as incompatible with the principle of self-determination and international law.
He also examined longstanding challenges facing the UN-led settlement process, including the dispersal of the Sahrawi population between the occupied territories and refugee camps in Algeria, as well as demographic changes resulting from the settlement of Moroccan civilians in Western Sahara and their potential implications for determining the electorate in any referendum.
Addressing claims that Algeria seeks territorial interests in Western Sahara, Ross said Algiers had consistently supported the Sahrawi people's right to freely choose their future, while acknowledging that both Algeria and the Polisario Front favour independence as a just resolution to the conflict.
Ross concluded that imposing a solution would not deliver the just and lasting peace repeatedly called for by the Security Council, but would instead fuel tensions and prolong instability and insecurity throughout North Africa.
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