The dispute over the arid region in the northwest corner of Africa has festered since Morocco took most of it over in 1975 following the withdrawal of former colonial power Spain.
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He told reporters in Algiers on Sunday, after visiting refugee camps in southern Algeria that he’s asked his special representative, Christopher Ross, to try to relaunch talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front, which for decades has claimed independence for the vast territory and its Sahraoui people.
The Polisario Front, which says the territory belongs to ethnic Sahrawis, waged a guerrilla war until a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991.
Local Sahrawi people are campaigning for the right to self-determination, but Morocco considers the territory as a part of the kingdom and insists that its sovereignty can not be challenged.
Ban Ki-Moon then held that the two sides “have made no real progress in the negotiations leading to a just and acceptable solution, based on the determination of the people of Western Sahara”.
Ban said MINURSO staff remain committed to helping conduct a referendum once an agreement is reached, but with hundreds of thousands of Sahrawi refugees still in camps in Algeria, managing civilian displacement has overshadowed hard political discussions and election preparations.
Commenting on his visit yesterday Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Mr. Ban announced that “soon convene a meeting of donors to raise funds for the needs of Sahrawi refugees can be met”.
What really moved and, even, saddened me was the anger.
“Many people expressed their anger, people who for more than 40 years have lived in the harshest conditions and who feel their plight and their cause have been forgotten by the world”, the United Nations chief added.
In a statement to APS, Ould Salek said that Ban, “shows the importance of the Sahrawi question and the United Nations efforts and commitment to end the Moroccan colonization”.
Mr. Ban said he was also “happy” to be in Algeria, for the second time as Secretary General, recalling that his first visit was “very painful”.
The North African country broke ties after a ruling by the European Court of Justice that a farm trade deal was illegal because it included the disputed region of Western Sahara.
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During his tour, Ban voiced concern over a worsening “humanitarian crisis” in Libya, a country with rival administrations and where the Islamic State jihadist group is gaining influence on Europe’s doorstep.
