On 25 August, the UN rebuffed Morocco’s attempts to replace Christopher Ross, the UN peace envoy on Western Sahara.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon rang king Mohammed VI that ‘the United Nations does not intend to modify the terms of its mediation, whose purpose is to promote the achievement of a mutually acceptable political solution to this conflict.’
Morocco invaded Western Sahara in 1975 and has illegally occupied the territory since then.
At the same time, as a US human rights delegation arrived in the territory, 12 jailed Sahrawi activists reportedly began a 48-hour hunger strike in the city of Laayoune, protesting against the conditions under which they are being detained.
The 12 were sentenced to three years in prison for their alleged involvement in clashes with Moroccan nationals that led to seven deaths last year in Dakhla, in Western Sahara.
In late July, it became known that the Moroccan government had tried unsuccessfully to access UN clean energy funds for a massive wind farm that it planned to build in occupied Western Sahara – but that it claimed was in southern Morocco.
Campaigning group Western Sahara Resource Watch has uncovered more dishonest Moroccan applications for funding under the Clean Development Mechanism.