UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres submitted Monday to the Security Council an advanced copy of his annual report on the Moroccan Sahara, covering the period from 30 September 2020 to 31 August 2021.
The report is submitted in anticipation of adopting a resolution extending the mandate of MINURSO, for which Guterres has recommended a duration of one year.
In his report, the UN Secretary General said that armed members of the "polisario" were present in Guergarat in October and November 2020, defeating unsuccessful attempts of the separatist group and Algeria to hide this truth.
In this regard, he informed the Council that since October 22, reconnaissance operations by MINURSO helicopter over Guergarat found the presence in the buffer strip of 12 armed polisario members in military uniform and of eight military vehicles, two of which were equipped with heavy weapons.
The report also said that the confirmed presence of armed "polisario" members among a group of 50 people, including children and women, is proof that this separatist group was using them as human shields to block the passage to Guergarat.
“These violations by the polisario lasted for three weeks during which the so-called demonstrators and armed elements of the polisario obstructed all traffic between Morocco and Mauritania and not allowing access to the observers of MINURSO,” as confirmed in the report of the Secretary-General.
Guterres told the Security Council that the "polisario" was informed by MINURSO that its presence in Guergarat was "a violation of the Military Agreement No. 1" and "urging it to withdraw its military personnel and vehicles from the buffer strip."
The military presence of the "polisario" in Guergarat last year, reinforces the position of Morocco, which had continued to call on the UN Security Council to "increase efforts to put an end quickly and definitively to destabilizing provocations of the group.
Guterres’ report said that following the polisario’s three-week blockage of the passage of Guergarat between the borders of Morocco and Mauritania, in October 2020, Morocco undertook, on November 13, 2020, an action by which it conclusively restored the free movement of people and goods at this crossing.
In this regard, Guterres confirmed the peaceful aspect of the intervention of the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) and that no casualties were reported to MINURSO on November 13, which is a strong denial of the accusations of the "polisario.”
