Open letter to the Sahrawi elite
We address you today, driven by the gravity of recent events and at a crucial moment for the Sahrawi people. The reality we face is complex, uncertain and deeply worrying, and requires serious and courageous reflection from all of us.
The unilateral resumption of war by the Polisario leadership in November 2020 has had predictable but devastating consequences. This decision, taken without the necessary political and strategic calculation, has led the movement into a de facto untenable position. On the military front, Moroccan drones have imposed their supremacy, eroding the Polisario's positions on the ground and eliminating the 1991 status quo. Algeria, the Polisario's main supporter, is reluctant to provide weapons and ammunition, while Mauritania is showing clear signs of fatigue and is considering restricting the transit of Sahrawi military equipment through its territory.
In the diplomatic arena, isolation is becoming increasingly evident. Numerous countries have frozen their relations with the ‘Sahrawi Republic’, while the list of influential nations supporting Morocco's proposal for autonomy as the ‘most serious and credible’ solution is growing, as recently expressed by the UK Foreign Secretary.
At the same time, the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General, Staffan de Mistura, is nearing the end of his mandate without having managed to revive the political process, further exacerbating the diplomatic paralysis. Added to this situation is the alarming precariousness of the refugee camps in Tindouf. Living conditions are deteriorating rapidly: shortages, insecurity, frustration. Despair has taken hold of the collective spirit.
Faced with this crossroads, no one with a sense of responsibility, whether in the leadership or in civil society, can remain silent. It is time to face reality with maturity and without subterfuge.
We call on the Sahrawi elite — political, tribal, intellectual, civil and diaspora — to open an honest debate, without sterile diplomacy or exclusionary approaches. We need to assess risks, define priorities and build a common strategy that will enable us to face the current challenges with realism and dignity.
There is no room for resignation or complacency. We are at a turning point where we must decide whether to persist on a path that leads nowhere or, on the contrary, to seek realistic, viable and fair solutions that prevent the sacrifices of our people from ending in failure, surrender and ignominy.
History is full of bitter lessons: movements such as the PKK in Turkey or the FARC in Colombia ended up surrendering unconditionally without achieving their objectives. Others, such as the secessionists in Biafra or the Mujahideen Khalq in Iran, saw their causes disappear amid oblivion, pain and chaos.
Let us not allow the Sahrawi people to suffer the same fate. It is time to leave behind divisions, acronyms, labels of ‘traitors’ or ‘loyalists’, ‘heroes’ or ‘villains’. We need unity, dialogue and responsibility to think collectively about a future that does not carry trauma or stigma for our younger generations, our widows, our maimed, our orphans.
The time has come for moral courage and political humility to recognise that the armed struggle and the current strategy have failed. But it is still possible, with will and clarity, to build an honourable political solution, without winners or losers, backed by international guarantees and commensurate with the dignity and aspirations of our people.
Instead of chasing mirages and persisting in journeys to nowhere, common sense and pragmatism advise us to focus on possible options based on political dialogue, flexible frameworks for coexistence and experiences of moderate nationalism such as those in Iraqi Kurdistan, the Basque Country, Catalonia and Northern Ireland in England.
The Sahrawi Movement for Peace calls for urgent, open and sincere dialogue. We invite the Polisario leadership — collectively or individually — tribal leaders, civil society organisations, intellectuals and academics, and our diaspora to meet anywhere to exchange ideas and proposals, in the name of the historical and moral responsibility we all share.
Time is running out. We must act before events overtake us and the last chance disappears. History will not be kind to those who, at a crucial moment like this, choose silence or inaction.
Permanent Political Commission of the MSP
Madrid, 4 June 2025
