The “Sahrawis for Peace” movement has called for urgent UN intervention to stop what it labeled a “senseless war” in the Moroccan Sahara, following a Moroccan drone strike over the weekend that killed two members of the Polisario Front in the Mahbes region.
In a letter addressed to Staffan de Mistura, the UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy to the Sahara, movement leader Ahmed Barikallah warned that continued violence could derail the peace process and undermine efforts to restart political dialogue.
The drone strike reportedly killed Mustafa Ould Mohamed Laroussi and Embarek Ould Datti—both affiliated with the Polisario Front—prompting concerns from human rights observers and pro-peace advocates. The Sahrawis for Peace movement attributed the escalation to the Polisario’s unilateral withdrawal from the 1991 ceasefire agreement in November 2020, citing the Guerguerat border incident as a pretext.
“Peace is still possible, and war is not an inevitable fate,” Barikallah wrote in the letter. He accused the Polisario leadership of dragging young Sahrawis into “unbalanced armed confrontations,” leading to more widows, orphans, and worsening humanitarian conditions in the Tindouf refugee camps in Algeria.
The movement also blamed the Polisario’s leadership for undermining the work of the UN peacekeeping mission MINURSO and called for the inclusion of alternative voices in the negotiation process—particularly the “third option” it represents.
“Military confrontation has become a burden for Sahrawis in the camps,” Barikallah said in an interview with Moroccan news outlet Hespress. “It is time to open space for peaceful, pragmatic initiatives that end the political deadlock.”
Barikallah cautioned that if violence continues unchecked, de Mistura’s mission could face the same fate as previous envoys who failed to reach a breakthrough. He urged the UN to impose an immediate ceasefire and convene inclusive talks with a broader set of stakeholders to find a balanced and lasting solution.
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