Rabat is "seriously concerned" about the terrible situation of the Morccan citizens held in the Tindouf camps, south-western Algeria, following the heavy rainfall that affected the area earlier this month, destroying half of its homes. Minister of Communication and Government Spokesperson Nabil Benabdallah said that "Moroccans pity their compatriots who are sequestered (in that region), considering this appalling situation a direct result of the other parties' decade-long reluctance and constant hindrance to any solution allowing the repatriation of the abducted to Morocco."
According to a report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), on February 9-10 rare torrential rains caused severe flooding in three of the five Sahrawi camps in Tindouf, leaving an estimated 50,000 Moroccan Sahrawis homeless. More than half of the homes, most of which are make-shift tents and unstable mud-brick houses, were either severely damaged or completely destroyed.
Benabdallah stressed that “the genuine solution to this deteriorating situation is to allow the Moroccan citizens held captive in Tindouf to join their homeland (Morocco), where they will live with dignity."
This can be reached, said the government official, only through providing the requisite conditions for the ultimate success of the political solution suggested by Morocco to maintain sovereignty over its Southern Provinces, known as the Sahara.
The Association for Freeing the Sahrawis Sequestered in the Tindouf Camps has called for an urgent intervention to avoid another humanitarian disaster there, following the floods that invaded the area.
The association also expressed concern over the spread of diseases and epidemics as a result of the lack of medicines and basic supplies, to say nothing of the fragility of the dwellings.
It called on the UN and all the humanitarian and human rights organisations “to intervene towards ending this tragedy."
Tindouf is the stronghold of the Polisario Front, which claims the separation of the Moroccan Sahara from the rest of the Kingdom.
The conflict over the Sahara dates back to 1975, when Morocco regained its Southern Provinces, formerly colonised by Spain, under the Madrid Accords signed by the two kingdoms and Mauritania.
The Polisario, then, started claiming sovereignty over the Sahara, taking advantage of Algeria's political and logistical support.
The dispute over the vast desert area ignited a long and bitter guerrilla war that culminated in a UN-brokered cease-fire in 1991.
Tags: Morocco, Fes, Maghreb, news
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