A Moroccan official has said 73 UN international staffers have pulled out of their Western Sahara mission on Sunday.
He said in Rabat that a “significant number” of UN staffers had left Laayoune airport on UN aircraft and commercial flights to Las Palmas in Spain.
He said the UN had three days to remove the 84 civilian staff from Western Sahara.
“10 will leave in the afternoon and one will remain for now. The 84th staff member will stay for now because she is pregnant,” the source said.
He said the mission currently has 242 military personnel, 84 international civilian staff, 157 national staff and 12 volunteers.
The source also disclosed that Morocco said it would also stop its voluntary contribution to the mission estimated at $3 million out of $53 million.
According to report, Rabat had accused UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, earlier this month of no longer being neutral in the Western Sahara dispute when he used the word “occupation” to describe its annexation of the region in 1975, when Morocco took over from colonial power Spain
Morocco had therefore ordered the UN to withdraw its 84 international civilian personnel from its peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara, MINURSO.
“The order is a response to UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon’s ‘unacceptable’ remarks about the disputed territory,” the source said.
He said the controversy over Ban’s comments was Morocco’s worst dispute with the UN since 1991 when the UN brokered a ceasefire to end a war over the Western Sahara and established the mission
Ban earlier this month visited refugee camps in southern Algeria for the Sahrawi people, who say Western Sahara belongs to them.
They fought a war against Morocco until the 1991 ceasefire.
Their Polisario Front wants a referendum on independence, but Rabat says it would only grant autonomy.
Reuters/NAN.
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