A Dormant Saharan Conflict Threatens to Awaken

A long-dormant conflict between Morocco and the ethnic Sahrawi people who inhabit the disputed Western Sahara territory, which both parties claim, threatens to escalate. Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council will take up a crucial vote on April 29 that likely will decide the fate of its peacekeeping mission there. In March, the Moroccan government expelled civilians attached to the peacekeeping mission after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon called Morocco's presence in Western Sahara an "occupation." A U.N. report released a month later detailed the state of the standoff between the Polisario Front, an armed Sahrawi activist group, and Moroccan forces, magnifying fears of renewed fighting between the two. Now, the ambiguous status of the peacekeeping mission is driving U.N. concerns surrounding the conflict in Western Sahara....