(Rabat, Morocco) – Morocco reaffirmed its commitment to a ceasefire in disputed Western Sahara on November 4 and assigned its Interior Ministry to help coordinate the withdrawal of United Nations peacekeepers, following the end of a monitoring mission that operated for 35 years.

The Royal Cabinet said the commitment would continue despite the expiry of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, known as MINURSO. Reuters independently reported the announcement, which followed a working session at the royal palace involving senior government and military officials.

Wednesday’s new development is Morocco’s stated approach to security and withdrawal coordination after the mission’s closure, rather than the closure itself. MINURSO ceased operations on November 1 after the Security Council failed to renew its mandate.

According to the cabinet statement carried by Moroccan news outlet Hespress with the state news agency MAP, the Interior Ministry’s existing coordination office will support the mission’s liquidation and departure. The statement did not provide a completion deadline or identify a replacement international mechanism for monitoring ceasefire incidents.

The pledge is not a new peace agreement with the Polisario Front, the Algeria-backed movement seeking independence for Western Sahara. Reuters reported that Polisario said it resumed armed struggle in 2020; the UN has described the subsequent conflict as low intensity.

Morocco considers Western Sahara its territory and controls its urban centres and coastline. Polisario operates east of a Moroccan-built security wall and maintains rear bases around Tindouf in southwestern Algeria, where it administers refugee camps.

The Associated Press reported that the mission ended after competing American and Russian proposals failed at the Security Council. MINURSO was established following a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991, with a settlement plan that envisaged a referendum on self-determination. That vote never took place.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned about the risk of escalating hostilities and urged restraint. His office says the peacekeeping mission’s departure does not extinguish the rights of Western Sahara’s people, while UN diplomatic efforts toward a political settlement will continue.

Accompanying image: editorial illustration.

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