 For more videos on people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Hello and welcome to People's Dispatch. Today we are joined by Mahjub Malihah, who is from the Sahara We Human Rights Defenders in Western Sahara, Codesa. He is here to speak with us about the current situation in Western Sahara, what has happened since the ceasefire was broken by Morocco, and what are the perspectives for the future. Thank you so much for joining us, Mahjub. So first we wanted to ask what happened on November 13, 2020, and what has happened since the ceasefire was broken by Morocco? Well indeed, on 13 November 2020, the Moroccan occupying forces decided to annex extra territories from the buffer zone, south of Western Sahara, an area called Gergerat, and breached the ceasefire that was signed back in 1991. This is a declaration of the end of the ceasefire. The Polisari Front, which is the legal representative of the Sahara We people, took its responsibility and actually forced to take arms in armed resistance against the occupation in Western Sahara. After that, the Moroccan occupying forces intensified its imposed siege on the Sahara We cities in the Kapai territories, targeting the Sahara We civilians who spoke a raised voice against the occupation in Western Sahara, those who support the Polisari Front in the Kapai territories, and mainly targeting the human rights defenders who basically report on the grave human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by the Moroccan occupying forces. We see that the military prisons in the streets of the cities in Western Sahara have been increased. Many activists are put under siege, under house arrest, temporarily or permanently, as the case of the Sahara activists, Sultana Khayya and their family, who are now, since 20 November last year, are under house arrest till today, facing daily operations, daily harassment from Moroccan occupying forces. We have raised many reports, warning the international community of the human rights situation in Western Sahara, a territory that is still closed, I mean, on international observers have no access to the territory in Western Sahara, including the UN personnel. We have a UN mission, which is the Minorso, the UN mission for the freedom in Western Sahara was created upon the ceasefire agreement in 1991, and this mission is the only one in the world that has no human rights mandate. They have no right to monitor reports on the human rights situation on the ground, which leave the Sahara We civilians, the human rights activists and defenders, face in the brutality of the occupation without any kind of protection or any kind of monitoring. We know that Morocco's actions on November 13, 2020 and since then were also inspired by a shift in the geopolitical situation in the region. Former U.S. President Donald Trump helped push forward some agreements that gave Morocco more support in exchange for normalizing ties with Israel. Can you talk about the role of the United States in the situation in Western Sahara and what it means today? The previous U.S. administration have brokered the Abraham Accord, as it's called, or the deal of the century. We see it as a trade deal, not necessarily a political deal that respects the people's wishes. Morocco, indeed, had or needed support from an international, from the international community or from a country with the weight of the United States. Trump was leaving office just before that, a few weeks before that, gave a proclamation to Morocco recognizing, recognizing sovereignty of Morocco over Western Sahara in a full contradiction with international law and in violation with the main fundamental principles of the United States itself and the United Nations, which is the right to self-determination. As part of this deal, actually it doesn't change anything on the ground, doesn't change anything on the legal status of Western Sahara, which is reaffirmed recently or two weeks ago by the highest court in the EU, the European Union, that have basically annulled association agreement, free trade agreement and fisheries agreement between the European Union and Morocco that illegally includes Western Sahara. The court highlighted that Western Sahara and Morocco are distinct and separate territories. Morocco has no sovereignty over Western Sahara, so EU-Morocco agreements cannot be applied or applicable to Western Sahara and beside that, for the first time in a clear tone from the judges, from the highest court in the EU says that the Polisari Front is the legal representative of the Sahara people as recognized by international community and the United Nations and it has the legal personality to defend the interests of the people of Western Sahara. Back to the proclamation, indeed it came after the breach of the ceasefire. This proclamation unfortunately had a severe impact on the situation on the ground. The Moroccan occupying forces took it as a green light to commit and continue committing crimes against humanity, grave violations of grave human rights violations and targeting the Sahara civilians and the Sahara human rights defenders. This is the only impact that this proclamation had. It will not change that the people of Western Sahara has a fundamental right to self-determination. It will not change that Western Sahara is a separate country and separate territory awaiting decolonization. It is still under the Fourth Committee, the decolonization committee on the UN. It is still considered as a non-self-government territory awaiting the colonization process. And we know that beyond the role of the United States, of Donald Trump, of the Abraham Accords, of the Deal of the Century, there are also other interests at play. The European Union has interest in Western Sahara. Morocco has, of course, historically had interest in Western Sahara, but for a deeper reason which has to do with its natural resources. Can you talk about the natural resources that are located in Western Sahara as a root cause of the current conflict and how that has played in the situation today? Western Sahara is a rich territory with natural resources, phosphate, for instance, large stock of fisheries, potential oil and gas, and renewable energy, the wind energy and the solar energy, beside other minerals with value in the territory. Those are basically the main reason Western Sahara was colonized by Spain and it is and remains the main reason the occupation continues from the Moroccan occupation or occupiers. Morocco to sustain its military occupation and gain not necessarily the international support, but to maintain the silence on the international level using these natural resources to bribe the international community or major players in the international community, including the European Union. We see the fisheries agreement and the trade agreements and many other economical contracts or treaties or licenses given to major companies to buy their political support. This will not, of course, not be respected with international law, but it is surprising to see countries like the United States, the European Union, who claim to be defenders of international law, creators of democracy and defenders of human rights, they all fail and contradict themselves when it comes to Western Sahara just because they have strategic interests in the region or in the territory itself. We don't necessarily disagree on guaranteeing interests of those countries and mainly their peoples. We are open to have collaborations, corporations with those countries for the interests of their people, but not against the interests of our people. There should be a mutual understanding, mutual agreement that benefits both parties and, of course, we are a nation that's still under occupation. Of course, we can benefit in building our country and building our state from those partners, but partnership should be an equal ground. The breaking of the ceasefire between Western Sahara and Morocco was seen as a huge setback. You mentioned the rampant human rights violations that have occurred. Can you talk about what are the perspectives for peace in the region and what does this mean to the Sahara way people? Peace in Western Sahara have lasted 30 years, almost 30 years with no progress. We need to highlight that the Sahara people by nature is a peaceful people. To wait 30 years, you need to be patient enough to keep believing in peace. But we see that there is no will from the international community and mainly the Security Council and some of the member states. There is no will to maintain peace in the territory. We have warned a decade ago and every year that follows warned from violence, from loss of faith in peace among our youth and among other generations of our people. And here we are now. Everyone is shouting against peace and shouting for the armed resistance. We don't think that is a healthy thing to have, but we are not responsible for that outcome. It is the failure of the United Nations, the failure of the international community to guarantee peace and to guarantee a peace for resolution and completion of the conversation process in Western Sahara.