By: Hana Saada
ALGIERS- The President of the Saharawi Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, honored, on Saturday evening, the President of the Algerian Red Crescent (CRA), Ibtissem Hamlaoui, indicated the CRA in a post on its official Facebook page.
In her speech, Hamlaoui thanked the Saharawi authorities for this honor, while reiterating her permanent and unwavering support for the Saharawi refugees in the camps, which are considered the oldest and largest camps in the world, with more than 176,000 refugees.
For his part, continued the same source, the president of the Saharawi Red Crescent, Bouhebini Yahia Boudjbini, considered the honor as a symbol of loyalty for the permanent support of Algeria and the CRA who spared no effort to help the Sahrawi refugees in the most difficult times.
The Algerian Red Crescent (CRA) is an Algerian humanitarian volunteer organization founded in 1956. Its objectives are to help people in difficulty and empower vulnerable individuals and communities in Algeria and abroad as it strives to alleviate human suffering everywhere and at all times without partiality or discrimination. It endeavors to protect human life and health as well as ensure respect for the human being. CRA has a principal mandate of providing a wide range of relief and development services, both locally and internationally, capitalizing on its resourceful and specialist staff and volunteers. Throughout its long history, the body has been serving as an auxiliary to the State of Algeria in its humanitarian efforts, in light of its central mission of improving the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity inside and outside of Algeria.
Since its foundation and in all its stages and subsequent development, the crescent has had a noble mission to serve humanity, advocate for the weak and safeguard their dignity, inspired by the ideals and the noble values of the authentic Algerian spirit as well as the innate nature of the Algerian people, who are distinguished by their generosity and loving goodness for everyone in this world, but also from their wise and far-sighted leadership which has, throughout history, been keen to support, encourage and nurture humanitarian actions, believing in its great role in promoting cooperation among nations, achieving the ultimate goal of mankind, which is cooperation and solidarity in the face of crises, challenges and blights as well as establishing international peace and security. Algeria sets the finest example of volunteer activity, and contributed to a clear picture of how humanitarian relief should be perceived and implemented.
As regards the Saharawis, the Algerian Red Crescent actively contributes to the support of the 176,300 Sahrawi refugees who are spread across five camps in Tindouf. Recently, it took the initiative to provide 10,000,878 tons of foodstuffs, 115 equipped school wallets, 22 boxes of sanitary napkins, 10,000 protective masks, medical examination table, 1410 medicine boxes as well as 05 oxygen generators to the Saharawis which helped to avoid the deterioration of the humanitarian situation. The humanitarian initiative is part of the permanent and constant support of the Algerian people to the Saharawi brotherly people, who are going through a difficult humanitarian situation.
Besides Western Sahara, the organization provides assistance to foreigners worldwide affected by social conflicts, wars or natural disasters without discrimination against any human being regardless of nationality, gender, color, race, religious or political beliefs.
As a result of this active, integral and honorable role, the Algerian Red Crescent is highly appreciated by a large number of international and regional organizations concerned with humanitarian work. For its part, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed, last December, 2022, its gratitude to the body for its unwavering support to refugees hosted in Algeria, especially the Saharawis.
“UNHCR is deeply grateful to the ARC for its support to refugees in Algeria throughout 2022 and in particular for its continued support to the humanitarian response to Sahrawi refugees in the camps,” wrote the representative of UNHCR-Algeria in a letter to the ARC.
He added: “The UNHCR would not have been able to achieve what it has to accomplish without the support of the Algerian Red Crescent”.
The ARC is also commended for its partnership that has enabled the UNHCR “to meet the needs of those who need it most” and for its contribution in terms of food aid (240 tons) that “helped avoid the crisis situation in the camps during the critical food shortage,” noted the same source.
Sneak peek into Western Sahara cause
Western Sahara, noteworthy, is a Non-Self-Governing Territory of the UN that lies in the Sahel region bordered by Algeria, the Kingdom of Morocco, and Mauritania. This territory is home to the Sahrawis, a collective name for the indigenous peoples living in and around the region. They speak the Hassaniya dialect of Arabic. Similarly, many others also speak Spanish as a second language due to the region’s colonial past.
Western Sahara has been on the decolonization agenda of the UN and AU for more than fifty years. In 1963, Western Sahara was included on the list of non-self-governing territories under Article 73 of the UN Charter and the UN General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 1960 on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.
On November 6, 1975, Morocco launched the so-called ‘Green March’, a march of 350,000 Moroccans, a number four times the size of the Sahrawi population back then, into the territory of Western Sahara.
According to Adala UK, on that day, Morocco organized what it called a “Green March” to officially invade the North of Western Sahara moving 350,000 Moroccan settlers to the territory. This occupation coincided with the termination of the Spanish status as an Administrative Power, creating a vacuum that imposed on the UN to assume its responsibility there.
Subsequently, the UN Security Council deplored the holding of the march, calling upon Morocco to immediately withdraw all the demonstrators from the territory of Western Sahara; however, its effort was in vain.
The Polisario Front liberation movement continued its struggle to end all foreign occupation of its country and in 1976 formed a government-in-exile and declared the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic. In November 1984, the Polisario Front’s SADR was recognized by the then Organization of African Unity (OAU), now the African Union (AU), which led to the withdrawal of Morocco from the OAU in protest. In May 1991, the Polisario Front and Morocco ended many years of fighting following an UN-sponsored peace settlement, culminating in the establishment of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), which is assuming its responsibility till nowadays.
Despite a cease-fire in 1991 that put an end to the armed combat, Western Sahara remains a disputed territory. Nowadays, Morocco controls parts of the territory. However, the United Nations refers to Western Sahara as a non-self-governing territory and maintains a stance favoring self-determination for its people.
The UN body is attaching great interests to the Saharawi cause, expressing willingness to find a solution ensuring the self-determination of the Sahrawi people, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the Council.
After almost 30 years of compliance with a 1991 ceasefire, Morocco and the Polisario Front have resumed war in Western Sahara, as Morocco torpedoed the 1991 ceasefire through its act of aggression on the Saharawi Liberated Territories on 13 November 2020.
The Moroccan new act of aggression has not only ended the ceasefire and related military agreements but has also undermined the UN peace process in Western Sahara and plunged the region into another spiral of extreme tension and instability.
Both the UN Secretary-General and the Security Council have confirmed the breakdown of the 1991 ceasefire on 13 November 2020. In his report (S/2021/843; para 2) dated 1 October 2021, the UN Secretary-General acknowledged, among other things, “the resumption of hostilities” between the occupying state of Morocco and the Frente POLISARIO. For its part, in its resolution 2602 (2021) adopted on 29 October 2021, the Security Council noted “with deep concern the breakdown of the ceasefire” (PP 14).
The acknowledgment by both the UN Secretary-General and the Security Council of the breakdown of the 1991 ceasefire and the realities on the ground render any attempt to deny or underplay the seriousness of the current situation in MINURSO’s area of operation unacceptable and even misleading at a time when the occupying state of Morocco continues its aggression on the Sahrawi Liberated Territories and its deliberate targeting and killing of civilians and destroying their properties.
The final status of the state of Western Sahara will only be settled when a UN-supervised referendum is held in which the country’s inhabitants should exercise their legitimate right to self-determination.
For Algeria, the defender of the colonized peoples worldwide, Western Sahara is a question of decolonization between the Polisario Front and the Kingdom of Morocco given that this territory is inscribed on the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, pending the implementation of the historic resolution 1514 of the General Assembly, which establishes the right of colonized peoples to self-determination and independence, and Algeria will always remain peace patron at the regional and international levels. Algeria has always reiterated its keenness to continue to support the Saharawi people to realize their right to self-determination and independence, considering this firm position as an international obligation, and Algeria will always assume its role as negotiations’ supervisor.
