The Sunday Business Post, 15 November 2015
Colin Murphy reports on his visits to the Polisario-run camps, in Algeria, some years ago and more recently where roughly 100,000 people live a barren existence, without a functioning economy or proper services.
He writes, “On a separate trip to Western Sahara, I met dozens of Sahrawi activists who said they had been arrested, beaten, imprisoned and tortured for activities ranging from graffiti to human rights work to political protest. Among these was Brahim Sabbar, whom I met in Dublin again recently, as he attended an event run by the Irish human rights organisation, Front Line Defenders. (…cont.)

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Richard Dowden
The Royal African Society, Britain’s prime Africa organisation. Friday, 6 November 2015
Forty years ago today (6 November), Morocco invaded Western Sahara, a former Spanish colonial possession – mostly made up of desert – in West Africa.
As Spain walked away, Morocco claimed the territory as part of its ancient empire. The UN had declared that it was up to the people of the territory to decide their own future,(…cont)

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Western Sahara – Africa ’s Last colony
Malainin Lakhal
The Thinker, Vol 66, 2015
In 1963, the United Nations (UN) included Western Sahara in the list of countries to be decolonized and asserted the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination. In 1966 the UN, for the first time, passed a resolution calling for this self-determination to be exercised by referendum. On 31 October 1975, Morocco and Mauritania invaded Western Sahara as Spain (the former colonial power) looked on. (cont.)

Malainin Lakhal’s article >>