The European Union must stop boats fishing off the disputed Western Sahara coast, appealed Polisario, the Western Sahara independence movement. It has also announced a legal framework to back up its claim to the area’s resources. It is told that Morocco annexed Western Sahara in 1975 after Spanish colonial forces withdrew, sparking a low-level guerrilla war with Polisario that ended in 1991 when the United Nations brokered an uneasy ceasefire.
According to Polisario the territorial dispute is still unresolved but Morocco has poured money into defending the majority of Western Sahara it controls, developed its mineral resources and fisheries and awarded oil exploration permits to foreign firms. Polisario has accused Morocco of illegally exploiting Western Sahara’s wealth. It also put pressure on foreign companies working with Morocco in the territory to cease their activities.
But Morocco justified its presence in the territory and that most Sahrawis consider themselves Moroccan. Polisario informed that its would-be government — the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) — had created a 200- mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) giving it exclusive rights over the area’s offshore oil and gas and fisheries.
Polisario also said that the EEZ also provides the legal framework for the SADR’s offshore licensing regime, which is currently receiving international bids for offshore oil and gas exploration activities. SADR President Mohammed Abdelaziz called on foreign governments and companies to reconsider agreements with Morocco that do not explicitly exclude Western Sahara.
