United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of potential escalation of hostilities in the disputed Western Sahara region after the expiry of a 35-year-long peacekeeping mission.
“The Secretary-General said he remains concerned about the security situation throughout the territory and the risk of hostilities escalating,” his spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement on Sunday.
Guterres also confirmed the end of the peacekeeping mission on Sunday, after the UN Security Council failed to renew its mandate on Friday.
The UN established the Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara in 1991 to monitor a ceasefire and prepare a referendum on the territory’s future.
Morocco has considered Western Sahara its territory since 1975, when Spain withdrew from the desert region in northwest Africa, roughly the size of Britain.
The Polisario Front, an Algeria-backed movement acting on behalf of the Indigenous Sahrawi people, seeks to establish an independent state called the Sahrawi Republic.
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