Western Saharan clashes (2020–present)
The 2020–2024 Western Saharan clashes, also called the Guerguerat crisis, Moroccan military intervention in Guerguerat or Second Western Sahara War, is an armed conflict between the Kingdom of Morocco and the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), represented at the United Nations by the Polisario Front, in the disputed region of Western Sahara. It was the latest escalation of an unresolved conflict over the region, which is largely occupied by Morocco, but 20–25% is administered by the SADR. The violence ended a ceasefire between the opposing sides that had held for 29 years in anticipation of a referendum of self-determination that would have settled the dispute. Despite the establishment of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara in 1991, the referendum was never held.
| 2020–2024 Western Saharan clashes | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Western Sahara conflict | |||||||||
Map of the Western Sahara; location of Guerguerat, where the clashes began, is marked with a red circle. | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Kingdom of Morocco | Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Units involved | |||||||||
| Royal Moroccan Armed Forces | Sahrawi People's Liberation Army | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| At least 6 soldiers killed | At least 12 soldiers killed | ||||||||
| 66 killed overall (as of July 2023) | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Tensions between Morocco and the Polisario Front deepened in mid-October 2020 when Sahrawi peaceful protesters blocked a controversial road connecting Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara to sub-Saharan Africa. The protesters camped on the road near the small village of Guerguerat, where it passes through a 5-kilometer-wide buffer strip monitored by the UN. Despite the controversy, the route had grown in economic importance, such that the protest stranded about 200 Moroccan truck drivers on the Mauritanian side of the border. According to the MINURSO, both Morocco and Polisario deployed forces near the area in late October, with Mauritanian forces reinforcing their positions along its border with Morocco, which is controlled by the Polisario Front.
On 13 November, Morocco launched a military operation from the Berm into the demilitarized buffer strip of Western Sahara to clear the protesters near Guerguerat and restore the free movement of goods and people. The Polisario Front urged the United Nations to intervene, noting that the Moroccan military operation violated the ceasefire agreements of the 1990s, and furthermore accused the Moroccan security forces of shooting at unarmed civilians in the buffer strip. Morocco denied there had been any armed clashes between the sides and said the truce remained in place, while SADR authorities declared the ceasefire over. Clashes spread that same day along the Moroccan Berm, with Morocco claiming that it had repelled a Sahrawi incursion near Al Mahbes. The SADR declared war on Morocco the next day. Since the beginning of the conflict, both countries have begun mass mobilisation and the SADR Ministry of Defense claims to be carrying out daily bombardments on military objectives along the Moroccan Berm. It is the first major clash in the region since 1991.