#saharawi

WE ARE REBELS / documentary series / online / youtube

We are Rebels. Western Sahara. 

Il Marocco occupa il Sahara Occidentale illegalmente da 45 anni, come da 57 anni Israele occupa altrettanto illegalmente la Cisgiordania. Tale Occupazione illegale è redditizia per i due stati, è fonte di espropriazione e violenze per  le popolazioni che la subiscono, è una vergogna per l’ONU, di cui si può perfino intravedere una tattica immobilizzante per mezzo di promesse illusorie: la…

The EU's moral compass and the Western Sahara, 45 years after the Madrid Accords

The 14th of November marks the 45th anniversary of the so-called Madrid Accords between Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania, which divided the Spanish colony of Western Sahara between its two African neighbours.

These accords sought to give some form of legal cover to the Moroccan occupation that had begun just days before with the "Green March", in which thousands of Moroccan troops and organised civilians had crossed into the territory.

However, the accords could not by fiat transfer sovereignty over Western Sahara, despite Spain relinquishing its responsibilities in the dying days of the Franco regime (in exchange for juicy fishing rights and concessions in a phosphate mine).

Since the Mauritanian withdrawal in 1979, Morocco remains to date the sole (illegal) occupying force in Western Sahara and Spain's legal responsibility remains while, for the United Nations, Western Sahara continues to be listed as a non-self governing territory awaiting decolonisation.

Some 45 years after the Madrid Accords, the Saharawi people continues to be divided by a 2,700 km sand wall, guarded by 120,000 Moroccan troops, split between those living under military occupation and over 170,000 Saharawis living in refugee camps in the Algerian province of Tindouf.