The Polisario Front has reported the tragic loss of three of its members, including the prominent Sahrawi leader Lahbib Mohamed Abdelaziz, who served as a commander in the first campaign brigade of the Sahrawi Popular Liberation Army. This somber announcement followed a drone strike carried out by the Moroccan military, which has escalated tensions in the region. According to the information provided by the independentist organization to the Spanish daily El País, the attack resulted in the deaths of Abdelaziz and two other fighters, whose identities remain undisclosed. The incident occurred near the wall of occupation erected by Morocco, which delineates the territories controlled by both parties in Western Sahara.
Lahbib Mohamed Abdelaziz, born in 1989 within the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tinduf, southwest Algeria, held a degree in International Relations and had officially joined the army in November 2011. He was not only a key figure in the General Staff but also served as the central training director. Notably, he was the son of the late Mohamed Abdelaziz, the former president of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and a historical leader of the movement, who passed away in May 2016. This drone strike represents a continuation of the long-standing hostilities in the region that reignited in November 2020, when Moroccan troops entered the demilitarized zone of Guerguerat to dismantle a blockade established by Sahrawi activists, prompting the Polisario Front to declare the 1991 UN-sponsored ceasefire agreement effectively void and resume military operations against Morocco's control over approximately 80% of the territory.
In light of these grave developments, Abdulah Arabi, the Polisario Front's representative in Spain, vehemently condemned the attack, expressing his concerns in statements made to the Europa Press news agency. He criticized what he termed as a "double standard" in the Spanish government's foreign policy, highlighting the silence from Madrid regarding the Sahrawi casualties compared to the swift condemnation issued by the Spanish embassy in Rabat following a Polisario attack on May 5 against the Moroccan-controlled town of Esmara, which reportedly resulted in no fatalities. Arabi emphasized that this military incursion coincides directly with the official visit of the UN's personal envoy for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, to the refugee camps in Tinduf, a situation that the movement's leadership intends to leverage to reaffirm its unwavering commitment to exercising the right to self-determination before the international body.
As reported by diariosocialista.net.
