UN peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara ends after US-Russia Security Council deadlock

Morocco has welcomed the end of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara after a diplomatic standoff between the United States and Russia left the Security Council unable to agree on the mission's future. The council failed on Friday to renew the mandate of Minurso, which had monitored a ceasefire in the disputed territory since 1991. Russia vetoed a US-backed proposal that would have extended the mission for another year while removing the word "referendum" from its name and making Morocco's autonomy plan the sole basis for further negotiations. The draft received the support of 11 of the council's 15 members, including France and the UK, but Moscow argued it was too favourable to Morocco. A rival Russian draft to extend the mission without changing its terms received only two votes. Minurso's mandate expired at the end of Saturday, 31 October. The UN said the following day that the mission had entered a liquidation period, with a reduced team overseeing the transfer of military equipment and other assets. The mission had 155 military personnel and was expected to cost $62m in the financial year beginning in June, according to a UN report. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination must be respected and warned of the risk of renewed hostilities. The Polisario Front condemned the US proposal, with its representative Sidi Omar thanking Russia for the veto, saying the draft would "torpedo the foundations of the UN peace process" and threaten regional and international peace. Morocco, by contrast, said the mission's personnel and equipment should leave the territory in the coming days and argued the issue should no longer be considered by the Security Council. Western Sahara, on Africa's north-west coast, was a Spanish colony until 1975 and holds significant phosphate reserves and valuable Atlantic fishing grounds. As Spain withdrew, Morocco and Mauritania both claimed the territory. After the International Court of Justice found historical ties of allegiance but no territorial sovereignty overriding the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination, Morocco's King Hassan II organised the Green March, in which about 350,000 Moroccan civilians entered the territory on 6 November 1975. Spain then signed the Madrid Accords transferring administrative control to Morocco and Mauritania, though the agreement did not settle sovereignty. The Polisario Front, an independence movement founded in 1973, rejected the deal and fought Moroccan forces for 16 years, with Algeria acting as its main regional ally and hosting Sahrawi refugees near Tindouf. Mauritania renounced its claim in 1979. A UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991 divided the territory with a sand wall, or berm, and established Minurso to monitor the truce and organise a referendum on independence or integration with Morocco. That vote, scheduled for 1992, never took place because the sides could not agree on voter eligibility. Morocco proposed an autonomy plan in 2007, which Polisario and Algeria rejected, and the ceasefire broke down in November 2020 when Polisario said it was resuming armed struggle. Following a long diplomatic campaign by Morocco, the Security Council voted in 2025 for a resolution backing the autonomy plan as the "most feasible" solution. The US recognised Moroccan sovereignty over the territory in 2020 as part of the agreement establishing relations between Morocco and Israel, and France endorsed the autonomy plan as the basis for resolution in 2024. At least 10 African countries have opened diplomatic missions in the territory since Morocco rejoined the African Union in 2017. Morocco's royal palace welcomed the failure to renew the mandate, and in Laayoune, the territory's largest city, people were shown celebrating with Moroccan flags and portraits of King Mohammed VI. Addressing a joint session of parliament on Monday, House of Representatives Speaker Ahmed Touizi called the end of Minurso a victory for Moroccan diplomacy and said the country should move from "managing the dispute to implementing its autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty." Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said the mission's end does not mean the end of the ceasefire, to which Rabat remains committed "within respect of its security and sovereignty." Analysts and aid organisations warned the withdrawal carries risks. Issam Laaroussi, a Moroccan expert in international relations, told the BBC that Minurso's departure "could aggravate an already fragile security environment," while Oxfam cautioned that losing the mission's monitoring and de-escalation role could undermine stability with serious consequences for civilians. Polisario has not said what it will do next, and any resumption of fighting could draw in Algeria, which spent an estimated $25.4bn on its military last year compared with Morocco's $6.3bn, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which cited the Western Sahara dispute as a key driver of the increases. The decision does not change Western Sahara's legal status, which remains on the UN list of non-self-governing territories, while the African Union officially recognises independence as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.