Morocco creates a military region on its border with Algeria

Morocco has created a new military region along its border with Algeria, amid tension between the two Maghreb neighbors, the official army review reported on Monday (February 21st). The Moroccan territory, which was until then divided into two military regions, North and South, is now divided into three military sectors with the creation of the new Eastern zone, along the eastern border with Algeria. The command of this area was entrusted to Major General Mohammed Miqdad, whose investiture ceremony took place on January 5, said the Review of the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) in its latest edition. “The creation of this entity aims to ensure the coherence of the command, control and support of the land, air and maritime components of the FAR”and give them “more flexibility and freedom of action necessary for the accomplishment of the various missions”according to the same source.

The creation of the new military zone comes at a time of tension between Rabat and Algiers, particularly over Western Sahara and the recent rapprochement between Morocco and Israel. Last August, after months of friction, Algiers severed diplomatic relations with Morocco, accusing it “hostile actions”. Rabat regretted a decision “completely unjustified”. The question of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony considered as a “non-autonomous territory” by the UN, has for decades opposed Morocco to the separatists of the Polisario Front, supported by Algeria. Rabat, which controls more than two-thirds of the territory, is proposing an autonomy plan under its sovereignty. The Polisario is calling for a self-determination referendum under the aegis of the UN, planned when a ceasefire was signed in 1991, but never materialized.

The Polisario claimed to have killed twelve Moroccan soldiers in February during different attacks in the disputed territory. The Moroccan authorities generally refrain from reacting to the allegations of the Polisario Front. In mid-November 2020, a ceasefire in force for 29 years in Western Sahara was shattered after the deployment of Moroccan troops in the far south of the territory to dislodge separatists who were blocking the only road to Mauritania. . According to them, it is illegal because it did not exist when the 1991 agreements were signed. Since then, the Polisario says “in a state of war of self-defense” and publishes a daily bulletin of its operations.