April 2014

Addis Ababa, April 17, 2014 (SPS) - The Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union (AU), Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has welcomed the report issued by the UN Secretary General on the situation concerning Western Sahara.


In a press release issued Tuesday, Mrs. Dlamini-Zuma recalled to the recommendation made for the UN Security Council comprehensively to review the framework that it provided for the negotiating process in April 2007, if no progress occur before April 2015.

Brussels, April 17, 2014 (SPS) - A group of members of the European Parliament has sent a letter to the UN Secretary General and Security Council Member States, in which they called for expand the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to include the monitor of human rights situation on the ground.


MEPs recalled that several international human rights NGOs and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, described as “worrisome” the human rights situation in occupied Western Sahara.

Madrid, April 17, 2014 (SPS) - The iconic anti-apartheid fighter Andrew Mlangeni, imprisoned with Nelson Mandela for 26 years, announced Wednesday that he will attend the 11th edition of the Western Sahara International Film Festival (FiSahara), to be held in the Wilaya of Dakhla from April 29th to May 04, informed the organizers.


Mlangeni, now 89, was sentenced with Nelson Mandela at the Rivonia trials and lived beside him in Robben Island and Pollsmoor prison.

Chahid Al Hafed (refugee camps), April 17, 2014 (SPS) - President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front Mr. Mohamed Abdelaziz has deplored the “violent attack” carried out Tuesday evening by Moroccan repression forces against Saharawi citizens in the occupied city of El Aaiun, asking the UN to take “urgent steps” to protect the Saharawi people.

Addis Ababa, 16 April 2014(SPS)- The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, has called for renewing efforts to resolve the conflict in Western Sahara, welcoming the report of the UN Secretary General on the situation concerning Western Sahara, issued on 10 April 2014.

London, April 16, 2014 (SPS) - On the eve of the UN Security Council´s meeting on April 17th, Western Sahara UK Campaign has appealed to the Security Council to fulfill its duty to the Saharawi people, by giving the MINURSO the powers to monitor human rights in Western Sahara.

Chahid Al Hafed (refugee camps), April 16, 2014 (SPS) - Sahara Press Service (SPS) has received a letter of congratulation and appreciation from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication of Saint Petersburg State University.


In a ceremony organized Wednesday, a young journalist from the aforementioned university, also a cooperator with SPS since two years Katerina Ermakova presented this letter to SPS director, in the presence of the Polisario Front´s Representative in Moscow.

El Aaiun (occupied territories), April 16, 2014 (SPS) - Moroccan occupying authorities expelled Tuesday a Spanish women delegation from the airport of the occupied city of El Aaiun, capital of Western Sahara.

El Aaiun (occupied territories), April 16, 2014 (SPS) - Moroccan occupying forces heinously attacked Tuesday night the Saharawi demonstrators in the occupied city of El Aaiun, capital of Western Sahara, leaving a heavy toll of victims, according to preliminary reports.


The demonstrators called for right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence, release of Saharawi political prisoners, cease the plunder of natural resources and human rights violations carried out by Morocco in Western Sahara.

Brussels, April 15, 2014 (SPS) - In anticipation of the United Nations Security Council meeting on Western Sahara on 17th April, 115 organizations, of which Saharawi organizations and international ONGs, from 21 countries around the world have issued a joint letter calling on the UN Security Council to agree an expansion of the current MINURSO mandate to include the monitoring and protection of the human rights in Western Sahara.

Washington, April 15, 2014 (SPS) - Human Rights Watch has urged the Security Council of the United Nations to extend the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to incorporate human rights monitoring, welcoming the call made by Ban Ki-moon in his report on the situation in Western Sahara released April 10, 2014 for “sustained, independent and impartial monitoring of human rights.

Chahid Al Hafed (refugee camps), April 15, 2014 (SPS) - Saharawi Students Union (UESARIO) organized Monday the 3rd edition of the annual demonstration MINURSO MANDATE, aimed at calling on the Security Council to extend the UN mission in Western Sahara to include human rights and natural resources plunder’s monitoring.

Copenhagen, April 15, 2014 (SPS) - The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) has noted that since the Moroccan regime has, since 30 April 2013’s Security Council resolution extending MINURSO’s mandate, continued to violate human rights Western Sahara.

Algiers, April 15, 2014 (SPS) - Algeria has welcomed “with satisfaction” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s report on Western Sahara, presented to the Security Council, said Monday the Algerian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdelaziz Benali Cherif.


“Algeria welcomes the fact that this report recalls that Western Sahara issue is a question of decolonization and that this territory is constantly listed on the UN list of non-self governing territories, since 1963,” the spokesman told Algerian Press Service (APS).

Birlehlu (Liberated Territories) April 14, 2014 (SPS) - President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz, affirmed that bringing justice, peace and stability requires "firmness, strictness and clarity " from the United Nations to "impose respect of its charter and resolutions," warning that Morocco wanted the UN to abandon its "responsibility in the decolonization of Western Sahara," in a letter Monday to the UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki- Moon.

Algiers, April 14, 2014 (SPS) - Amnesty International has urged the United Nations Security Council to extend the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to include human rights monitoring.

Security Council "must extend" MINURSO's mandate, Salil Shetty, the secretary-general of Amnesty International, said in a statement released Sunday by the NGO's branch in Algeria.

Birlehlu (Liberated Territories) April 14, 2014 (SPS) - President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front Mohamed Abdelaziz  sent Monday an "urgent"  letter to the UN Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon.

The letter  related to the latest developments in the Western Sahara issue and the efforts of the United Nations on the decolonization of the last colony in Africa, the Western Sahara. (SPS)

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