Western Sahara: Polisario Front Alleges Morocco Targeted Civilians in Zagula Attack

On 22 November 2023, the Polisario Front notified the United Nations Security Council of a “recent aerial attack carried out by the forces of the occupying state of Morocco against Sahrawi civilians.” The Government of South Africa transmitted the letter on its behalf.

The recent attack reportedly occurred on 17 November 2023. The Polisario Front alleges that it involved “unmanned aerial vehicles” that were used to conduct “aerial strikes on a group of Sahrawi civilians in Zagula in the Liberated Sahrawi Territories.”

In the letter, the Polisario Front condemned what it described as a “criminal attack on Sahrawi civilians” that “constitutes a clear instance of systematic State terrorism carried out by the occupying state of Morocco as part of its genocidal war against the Sahrawi people.”

The Polisario Front maintained that the incident was the latest event in “a repeated pattern of criminal actions carried out by the occupying state of Morocco designed to target, terrorize and deliberately kill Sahrawi civilians.”

The Zagula attack follows on the heels of an earlier attack in Smara by the Polisario Front. Reportedly, there were civilian casualties in the Smara attack too.

In Washington, allegations have been made that the Polisario Front targeted civilians in the Smara attack. The Polisario Front has rejected those charges.

The Washington Representative of the Polisario Front says that the Smara allegations are nothing more than “propaganda” that is being circulated by American think tanks supported by hostile foreign governments.

According to Mouloud Said, American think tanks provide a largely uncontested “platform” that its strategic competitors use “to divert attention away from the real issue” of “Moroccan drones that are targeting civilians in Western Sahara.”

Said explains, “Unfortunately, we don’t have the financial resources and the access to the think tanks” like the Governments of Morocco and Israel.

Said suggests that this puts the Polisario Front at a strategic disadvantage when it comes to shaping the beltway discourse on Western Sahara.

On his account, “There are a lot of people who are paid to (promote Moroccan propaganda) in Washington.”

Image Credit: Jayson Naidoo via Wikipedia