Morocco

Map of Morocco

What is Happening in Morocco?

In 2021, Morocco makes its first appearance in the Peoples under Threat table due largely to events surrounding the outbreak of armed conflict since November 2020 between Moroccan armed forces and the Polisario Front independence movement in Western Sahara. Since 1975, Morocco has militarily occupied much of the territory and violently repressed Sahrawi activists, journalists and rights organizations. It was emboldened by a December 2020 statement from then US President Donald Trump recognizing its sovereignty over Western Sahara. Now even more distant is the prospect of a referendum on Sahrawi independence, called for by the UN-brokered ceasefire that has held since 1991. The UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) remains the only post-Cold War peacekeeping mission without a human rights monitoring mandate, limiting its scope. The ineffectual reaction by the international community to the ongoing plight of Sahrawis risks calling to arms frustrated pro-Polisario youth, many of whom are among the 173,000 Sahrawis driven into refugee camps in recent decades.