A Polisario Front official broached autonomy rather than independence for Morocco-occupied Western Sahara—even as new repression mounts against a general strike in the territory.
Moroccan protesters blockaded the border with the Spanish enclave of Melilla, effectively shutting it down. Morocco accuses Spanish police of abusing its citizens and African migrants in the territory.
Western Sahara’s Polisario Front condemned a Security Council resolution extending the UN mission mandate for the Morocco-occupied territory, but imposing no mechanism to monitor rights.
Moroccan authorities “violently” put down peaceful protests in Western Sahara earlier this week, and blocked ambulances trying to take away the injured, activist Aminatou Haidar charges.
In a surprise move, Mauritania’s Constitutional Council rejected 10 articles of a new anti-terrorism law that allowed warrantless surveillance and indefinite detention.
A criminal court in Algeria acquitted former Guantánamo Bay detainee Mustafa Hemlili of charges of counterfeiting and affiliation with a militant group.
A race between French and Chinese uranium interests—and a possible uranium deal with Iran—may be behind the coup d’etat that topped President Mamadou Tandja in Niger.
Moroccan authorities ordered closed the independent news magazine Le Journal Hebdomadaire following what editors and press freedom advocates call a long campaign of harassment.
The Justice Department has announced charges against three purported al-Qaeda militants for arranging a cocaine deal with an infiltrator posing as a FARC representative.
Western Sahara independence activist Aminatou Haidar is on hunger-strike at an airport in Spain, demanding the right to return to her country without acknowledging Moroccan sovereignty over it.
An Algerian court sentenced in absentia Guantánamo detainee Ahmed Belbacha to 20 years in prison. Belbacha says he fears torture in Algeria and has requested asylum in the US.
An Algerian court acquitted former two Guantánamo detainees. Their lawyer said that while the men admitted to involvement in theft and drug trafficking, they denied any link with terrorism.
