Oxfam's reaction to decision of the UN Security Council to renew for 12 months the mandate of the MINURSO

Reacting to today’s decision of the UN Security Council to renew for 12 months the mandate of the MINURSO, the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, Oxfam in Algeria Country Director, Haissam Minkara, said:

“The mandate of the MINURSO has been renewed over 20 times, yet the Western Sahara crisis remains unresolved and deprioritized.”

“Oxfam calls for the immediate appointment of a new UN Personal Envoy for Western Sahara to restart the peace process without any further delay. The lack of progress has led to rising frustration within the refugee camps that the Western Sahara crisis is once again being forgotten by the international community, and risks the positive momentum towards a political solution that former Personal Envoy Horst Koehler had begun.”

“Sahrawi refugees have endured more than four decades of exile, living in a particularly inhospitable environment and remaining dependent on humanitarian assistance to sustain basic needs such as access to food, water, and shelter. It is long past time for the international community to live up to the expectations of the Sahrawi people and achieve a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution to this crisis which provides for self-determination in line with international law.”

Sahrawi refugees must be afforded a chance to live with dignity.