Lobbying 2016: Sahara activists running out of patience with Washington

For 25 years, Western Sahara activists have been patiently — and peacefully — waiting for the United Nations and the West to help secure their dreams of independence.

That may be about to change.

Following Morocco's expulsion of UN peacekeepers in March and the death of longtime Polisario Front leader Mohamed Abdelaziz at the end of May, the independence movement is warning that violence could once again flare up. Sahrawis since 1991 have put their faith in a UN mission to secure a vote on independence after 16 years of war, but patience is running out as the international community increasingly acquiesces to Rabat's de facto control over what some deem "the last colony in Africa."

"The [1991] cease-fire and the referendum were part of a package. If there is no referendum, there should be no cease-fire," Mouloud Said, the Polisario-backed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic's envoy to the United States, told Al-Monitor soon after Abdelaziz's funeral. "When it comes to hostilities, it's not in our hands. It's in the hands of the international community. If they fulfil their commitment, and they give a chance to the people of Western Sahara to choose freely their destiny, there'll be no fight. But if we see that the international community — or Morocco — is still intransigent … in that case, I think the resumption of hostilities will be the natural result."