One of Africa’s longest-simmering conflicts erupts back into the open.
The leader of a pro-independence group in Western Sahara declared war Saturday on Morocco, shattering a three-decade-long cease-fire and threatening a full-blown military conflict in the disputed desert territory in northwest Africa. The announcement came a day after Morocco launched a military operation in a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone after having accused the pro-independence group, the Polisario Front, of blocking access to neighboring Mauritania. The eruption of hostilities in Western Sahara adds to the instability roiling some of Africa’s biggest countries, with a protracted war in Libya, long-simmering insurgency in Mali and the threat of a civil war in Ethiopia. On Friday, Morocco said it had put up a “security cordon” on an important road connecting the country to Mauritania, which the Polisario considers illegal because the independence group says it was built in breach of the 1991 United Nations-brokered truce. Both sides said late on Friday that they had exchanged fire but did not confirm any deaths or injuries. Nor did they specify how many combatants on each side were involved.
