Morocco fights Polisario’s fake news with facts on social media

RABAT - Morocco is tackling fake news and disinformation propaganda that have been circulated by both the Algerian and Polisario Front media.

Morocco’s foreign ministry denied that the Algeria-backed Polisario Front downed a reconnaissance plane near the Guerguerat buffer zone and killed Moroccan soldiers behind the security wall, illustrating the fake news with real facts.

“In the face of continuous active disinformation by "polisario" and polisario-friendly media, it is important to distinguish between facts and fiction. The thread below sheds light on some of those false allegations: #FACTSvsFAKENEWS #ElGuergarat #Moroccan_Sahara,” tweeted the ministry.

Meanwhile, the Moroccan army responded to the Polisario Front militiamen’s shootings along the defence line as tensions soar between Morocco and the separatists.

"Since November 13, 2020, Polisario militiamen have carried out harassing shootings along the defense line without causing casualties or material damage in the ranks of the Royal Armed Forces," said the FAR-Maroc on its Facebook page.

“In execution of orders not to tolerate any provocation of this kind, the brave elements of the Royal Armed Forces responded, with firmness, to these shootings causing the destruction of a weapon station to the east of the defense line, at the level of El Mahbes,” added FAR-Maroc.

The Moroccan army on Saturday restored calm at the Guerguerat border crossing point with Mauritania three weeks after the Polisario Front militiamen blocked hundreds of trucks and following the United Nations peacekeepers’ failure to intervene clear the separatists from buffer zone.

Road traffic through the border crossing point between Morocco and Mauritania resumed Saturday afternoon as drivers honked their truck horns to celebrate the reopening of the Guerguerat border crossing point by the Moroccan army.

Last month the UN Security Council passed resolution 2548 which called for a "realistic, practicable and enduring solution ... based on compromise."

That language was widely seen as calling into doubt any referendum on the territory's future - a goal long sought by the Polisario and backed by the United Nations in the 1991 ceasefire.

Western Sahara, though a sparsely populated desert region, has rich fishing waters, phosphate deposits and Morocco's only working land route into the rest of Africa as its border with Algeria is closed.

Rabat considers Western Sahara an integral part of Morocco and proposes autonomy for the resource-rich territory.

Several African countries and the United Arab Emirates opened their consulates in the North African Kingdom’s southern provinces as a way of backing Morocco’s territorial integrity and autonomy plan.

Their moves have dealt a heavy blow to the Polisario Front’s claim of independence, especially after several countries around the world withdrew their recognition of the so-called Sahrawi Arab Republic.