Middle East Monitor – The Western Sahara conflict is an issue of colonialism, the Algerian President Tebboune announced on Saturday, stressing that there was no solution to the issue except through a “Sahrawi people’s referendum”.
“For the Algerian people, army and institutions, the Western Sahara conflict is an issue of colonialism,” Tebboune was quoted by Russia Today as stating.
Tebboune’s remarks came after the United Nations recently declared that there was no resolution to the crisis – which has been ongoing since 1975 – except through a referendum.
The Western Sahara is a sparsely-populated area mostly comprising desert regions, situated in the northwest coast of Africa. A former Spanish colony, it was annexed by Morocco in 1975. Since then, it has been the subject of a long-running territorial dispute between Morocco and its indigenous Sahrawi people, led by the Polisario Front.
