Western Sahara

News about Western Sahara

FiSahara: British film industry at Sahara refugee film festival

FiSahara: British film industry at Sahara refugee film festival

Around 150 members of the British film industry gathered on Wednesday evening for the London launch of the 8th International Sahara Film Festival: the...
Western Sahara: Morocco incites potential for war

Western Sahara: Morocco incites potential for war

At six am on Monday 8th November, Moroccan armed military forces began a violent attack on one of the largest of Western Sahara's three...
Running the gauntlet: Silent Saharawis protest on streets of Western Sahara

Running the gauntlet: Silent Saharawis protest on streets of Western Sahara

“They tore off my clothes leaving me naked in front of their ferocious eyes,” twenty year-old Nguia El Haouasi tells me describing an ordeal...
Human rights defenders beaten at Western Saharan airport

Human rights defenders beaten at Western Saharan airport

Four human rights defenders were injured, one seriously, by Moroccan police in Western Sahara after returning home from an international conference in Algiers yesterday....
Algeria-Morocco: Violent clash averted in Western Sahara stand-off

Algeria-Morocco: Violent clash averted in Western Sahara stand-off

“I have just lived through one of the most terrifying experiences of my life” renowned Spanish actor Willy Toledo, tells me over the phone...
A Spanish flottila to call for Western Sahara independence from Morocco

A Spanish flottila to call for Western Sahara independence from Morocco

Morocco and Spain, who have in recent times been involved in numerous diplomatic incidents, are to face their toughest test yet as Spanish and...
Western Sahara: Morocco to be sent to court by injured Spanish activists

Western Sahara: Morocco to be sent to court by injured Spanish activists

To the utter dismay of the Spanish Government eleven Spanish activists were arrested Saturday in El-Aaiún, the capital of Western Sahara, by the Moroccan...
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Monty Pythons show solidarity with Sahara refugees

Michael Palin and Terry Jones were among the celebrities attending a private view of a photographs from the Western Sahara refugee camps in London...
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Exhibition of forgotten refugees of the Sahara marks Refugee Week

A photographic exhibition marking Refugee Week opened this week in Brighton with images of refugees from one of the world's longest and most forgotten...
Guinness World Records challenged over Moroccan flag stunt

Guinness World Records challenged over Moroccan flag stunt

Campaigners today have dismissed the unfurling of the world's biggest flag in occupied Western Sahara as a political stunt by Morocco and demanded that...
Western Saharan hunger strikers and Morocco’s human rights violations

Western Saharan hunger strikers and Morocco’s human rights violations

Worldwide appeals have been launched in support of thirty-six Saharawi hunger strikers reaching their 29th day of protests. The wave of hunger strikes, which...
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A hunger for justice in Western Sahara

Anyone who saw the episode of the BBC documentary Tropic of Cancer last month in which journalist Simon Reeve travelled across Western Sahara would...
Western Sahara: Christopher Ross powerless

Western Sahara: Christopher Ross powerless

While touring the Maghreb, the U.N. special envoy for Western Sahara, Christopher Ross, witnessed, Tuesday, the antipodal positions of Morocco and the Polisario on...
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Matters of life and death in Western Sahara

Just weeks after one human rights activist cheated death by hunger strike, seven others have appeared before a military tribunal facing the death penalty. On...
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Hunger-striking Nobel Peace Prize activist calls on World Leaders for their support

On the day the Barack Obama picked up his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, one of the unsuccessful Peace Prize nominees, Aminatou Haidar, was...
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Western Sahara: Joy turns to anger

Last night as flight VAD652 was preparing for take-off news came through that the Moroccan authorities had refused the plane permission to land. On...
Morocco refuses hunger striker permission to land

Morocco refuses hunger striker permission to land

Stretchered out of an ambulance, her face covered with a turquoise blanket, hunger striking and human rights activist Aminatou Haidar returned to her makeshift...
UK delegation has audience with hunger-striking Nobel Prize nominee, Haidar

UK delegation has audience with hunger-striking Nobel Prize nominee, Haidar

A delegation from Britain has met with Nobel Peace prize nominee, Aminatou Haidar, who has been on hunger strike in the Lanzarote airport for...
British Parliament tables motion in support of Aminatou Haidar

British Parliament tables motion in support of Aminatou Haidar

A cross-party group of British MP's today tabled a Motion in Parliament expressing “dismay” at the expulsion of Nobel Peace Prize nominee Amainatou Haidar...
Spain: Nobel Prize nominee dying for freedom

Spain: Nobel Prize nominee dying for freedom

The hunger-strike of Nobel Prize nominee Aminatou Haidar has drawn the attention of the world to the plight of Western Sahara, but at what...
Spain: Hunger-striking Nobel Prize nominee in “critical condition”

Spain: Hunger-striking Nobel Prize nominee in “critical condition”

News today that hunger striking Nobel Peace Prize nominee Amainatou Haidar is in a critical condition has drawn concern from around the world including...
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Spain-Western Sahara: Hunger-striking Nobel Prize nominee sends message of hope to her children

Aminatou Haidar, the Western Saharan Nobel Prize nominee who has been on hunger strike for six days, has used a live telephone link-up during...
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Deportation of Nobel Peace Prize nominee “could backfire” on Morocco

The detention and deportation of Western Sahara's most prominent human rights activist could backfire on Morocco as the action attracts worldwide condemnation. Aminatou Haidar,...
‘Miracle-worker’ surgeon and Monty Python lend their support to Western Sahara refugee project

‘Miracle-worker’ surgeon and Monty Python lend their support to Western Sahara refugee project

Inspirational heart-surgeon, Sir Professor Magdi Yacoub, made a rare a public appearance today to help launch a new health and education project for Western...
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The ‘Berlin Wall’ of the desert

Whilst the world is commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall another less well-known wall that separates a nation and its people still stands...
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Western Sahara-Morocco: Poisoning the Well?

On 31st October, to mark the 34th anniversary of the occupation of Western Sahara, campaigners held a vigil outside the Moroccan embassy in London...
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Western Sahara: Parliamentary questions and vigil for ‘the Casablanca Seven’

Over 40 campaigners converged on a canal in central London this week on Tuesday evening for a vigil calling for the immediate release of...
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British MP’s “running out of patience” on Western Sahara situation

Today in London, to mark the anniversary of the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) ruling on Western Sahara's right to self determination, a Saharawi...
UN urged to intercede on behalf of seven ‘disappeared’ Saharawi human rights advocates

UN urged to intercede on behalf of seven ‘disappeared’ Saharawi human rights advocates

Concerns are mounting over the safety of seven prominent Saharawi human rights advocates from Western Sahara who were arrested by Moroccan police at Casablanca...
Morocco-Western Sahara: Moroccans risk jail for visiting W/Sahara camps in Algeria

Morocco-Western Sahara: Moroccans risk jail for visiting W/Sahara camps in Algeria

A visit, made this week by a group of persons to the Tindouf camps in south western Algeria, has not gone down well with...