New York (United States) Feb 18, 2021 (SPS) - US non-governmental organization Democracy Now on Monday shed light on the "brutal" assault on Sahrawi activist Sultana Khaya last weekend by Moroccan police agents at her home, in the occupied city of Boujdour, showing Morocco's violent campaign of repression in the occupied Sahrawi territories.
The Sahrawi activist and his entire family have been under house arrest in Boujdour since November 19, a few days after Moroccan aggression against peaceful Saharawi civilians in El-Guergueret buffer zone, in violation of the 1991 ceasefire.
On February 13, Democracy Now said in a TV show Monday, "Sultana was waving a large flag from her rooftop when Boujdour’s police commissioner hurled a rock and struck her in the head. Videos and photographs of the assault and of Khaya’s head injuries went viral."
The same source said that the day after the repression, "the next day, dozens of Sahrawi women approached the family home in solidarity but were beaten away by police."
"As Sultana protested her house arrest, the same police officer struck her in the back of her neck with a nightstick, and she fainted again."
Khaya’s family is worried about her injuries but says that Morocco-run hospitals are not safe places for Sahrawi activists, and police have not allowed the family to summon a doctor to the house.
In 2016, Democracy Now interviewed Sultana for its documentary "Four Days in Western Sahara: Africa’s Last Colony."SPS
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