The MSP presents itself as the key to a political, just and lasting solution to the Western Sahara dispute

The Movement Saharawi for Peace (MSP) has pointed out, in an official statement, that this organisation is ‘the key to the political, just and lasting solution of the Saharawi dispute’.

The MSP understands that the Polisario Front and the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) are in a situation of total decline due to the withdrawal of political support mainly in Latin America and Africa, with the latest example being the government of Ghana, which has withdrawn its recognition of the SADR.

According to the PSM, the Polisario Front is going through an ‘unprecedented crisis’ and the PSM itself is calling for it to regain the credibility and strength necessary to confront the Saharawi dispute. 

The MSP considers that the organisation has ‘established itself strongly in important sectors of Saharawi society’ and enjoys great support, establishing itself as a key actor in the political solution for Western Sahara.

The official statement of the MSP is reproduced below:

The MSP is the key to a just and lasting political solution to the Saharawi dispute.

The Ghanaian government's decision to withdraw its recognition of SADR highlights the gradual decline of the Polisario in Africa, its main stronghold since the 1980s.
In contrast to the setbacks suffered a few weeks ago in Latin America following similar decisions by the governments of Ecuador and Panama, the withdrawal of recognition by Ghana, a country of great influence among the English-speaking nations of the African continent, foreshadows an imminent diplomatic debacle in Africa, and more seriously, the increasingly likely exclusion of SADR from the African Union, the mother of all its victories.

It is worrying that the Polisario, as a party to the political process conducted by the UN through the Secretary General's personal envoy, Staffan de Mistura, comes to the next roundtable recommended by the Security Council with such a negative balance sheet.

From a position of obvious diplomatic weakness coupled with another no less embarrassing one in the military field after the return to arms in November 2020, the Polisario is literally going through an unprecedented crisis. The risk of a massive desertion of its ranks and a large-scale human stampede from the Tindouf camps is one of the foreseeable scenarios. 

It is time for the Sahrawis to look for new alternatives and new leaderships in order to emerge from the uncertainty and secure a more promising future. Mobilisation around the Movement Saharawi for Peace (MSP) can be the first step towards regaining the credibility and strength needed to face the current challenges and achieve a just and lasting political solution to the Western Sahara conflict without winners and losers. 

The new and thriving Sahrawi political organisation, which has just been recognised by the Socialist International and has no ‘black legends’ or setbacks in its four years of existence, has been politically and morally qualified to participate in the political process. It would be a great misfortune if, after half a century of struggle, exile and suffering, the Saharawis had to pay the price of a failed project and watch helplessly as the result of a hypothetical forced political agreement ends up reflecting the discredit, weakness and state of frustration and discouragement that today hovers in the ranks of the Polisario, which borders on unannounced capitulation.

The MSP, which has established itself strongly in important sectors of Sahrawi society and has the explicit support of the Assembly of Tribal Notables, must take the reins of the negotiating process because, at present, it is the key to avoiding an outcome marked by surrender and confusion.