Morocco kills the son of one of the founders of the Polisario Front in an attack in the Sahara

BarcelonaThe Polisario Front has announced the death in combat this Sunday of Sahrawi leader Lahbib Mohamed Abdelaziz, son of one of the founders of the Western Sahara independence organization and a member of its national secretariat. The Sahrawi armed forces have issued a statement in which they do not specify the circumstances of the death nor detail the identity of two more people, who according to the organization also lost their lives in an attack attributed to Morocco, which has not yet confirmed the military operation.

East of the Sahara and within the framework of the historical conflict between Morocco and the Western Sahara, the situation has been particularly tense since 2020, when Moroccan troops entered the Guerguerat demilitarized zone, which separates Mauritania from the Western Sahara, to dislodge a protest by Sahrawi activists who were blocking the only road connecting Morocco with sub-Saharan countries. The Polisario Front considered that the action constituted a breach of the ceasefire agreement signed with the UN's backing in 1991, and this episode triggered military actions by both sides.

During this time, Spain has changed its position regarding the Sahara conflict. Until 2022, it had remained neutral, but in March of that year, Pedro Sánchez publicly showed his support for the autonomy proposal for Western Sahara made by Morocco in 2007 before the UN, which means burying "de facto" any prospect of independence for the territory. A little over a year earlier, in December 2020, the United States, with Donald Trump as president, made the same diplomatic shift as a quid pro quo for Morocco to normalize its relations with Israel within the framework of the Abraham Accords.

Despite the increased tension in recent years, Morocco and the Polisario Front held talks in Madrid on February 8 and 9 of this year under the auspices of the United States to achieve a political solution to the conflict. There were no major developments then, but the UN described the meetings as "hopeful." However, the talks broke down in May after the Polisario Front attacked a Moroccan military base in Smara, in the north of Western Sahara.