Madrid, 25 December 2022 (SPS) - Members of the Sahrawi community and activists on Saturday staged protests in front of shops in Spain known for importing and selling products stolen from occupied Western Sahara.
Participants in these protests carried Sahrawi flags and distributed leaflets to the shoppers of Mercadona stores as well as passers-by who received detailed explanations about the involvement of this commercial space in the import and sale of products looted from the occupied Western Sahara.
Mercadona stores sell some products of different types, from fresh and frozen fish and seafood, including the finest types of octopus in the world, which comes from the occupied Dakhla, as Spanish products or products imported legally from neighboring countries, while they are looted products from the territory of Western Sahara.
The demonstrators emphasized that the theft of natural resources from the occupied territories of Western Sahara represents "a violation of the right of the Saharawi people to expose of their natural resources, and direct support for the Moroccan occupation and granting it the legitimacy it lacks by de facto and international law."
Finally, the demonstrators affirmed their disagreement with the import of the products of the occupied Western Sahara, whether from Mercadona or any other commercial store, and raised slogans in solidarity with the Sahrawi cause calling for respect for the rights of the Sahrawi people to choose their political future and to fully dispose of their natural resources, as well as their just struggle until freedom and independence are achieved.
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