PUSL.- The United Nations on Tuesday launched a two-year aid plan worth USD 214 million for Saharawi refugees and their descendants in Algeria, a UN spokesman said.
The objective of the 2024-2025 multi-agency Sahrawi refugee response plan is to ensure food stability, a reliable water supply and nutritional requirements of people living in camps in Tindouf, Algeria, said Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“Funding will also be used to enhance educational access, offer protection services, and to improve and promote the health of the men, women and children living there,” Haq said. “The plan also includes measures to diversify livelihood activities.”
He said the plan is led by the UN Refugee Agency, the World Food Program, the UN Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization. It encompasses a robust and sustainable alliance of all 28 humanitarian organizations working at the sites to meet the needs of Sahrawi refugees.
“Our colleagues note that donors have demonstrated steadfast solidarity with the Sahrawi refugees by providing critical humanitarian support,” the spokesman said. “However, they say that despite this support, operations there remain underfunded.”
He added that with the response plan, the world body renewed its call to fund operations to provide humanitarian assistance to Sahrawi refugees.
What does USD 214 million really represent?
The UN indicates that the population of the refugee camps is 173 600 persons, we believe that is number is inferior to the real number, but for the sake of this article will use the “official UN number”.
USD 214 401 000 divided by 173 600 refugees equals USD 1235 per person in two years. If we divide this amount by 24 months, it equals USD 51,5/person. Dividing this amount by 30 days equals USD 1,7 a day per refugee.
Taking in account that it is as mentioned above and according to the UN spokesman the donation is not only for food but for everything from housing, health, education and other basic needs, this amount per person equals in fact to nothing. Just enough not to starve. Although severe health issues will arise, and chronic illnesses will be aggravated as seen in the last decades.
This food insecurity, malnutrition and lack of basic fresh food is without doubt a form of reducing the Saharawi population and lowering the life expectancy.
Why now? Why is this “donation” decided now and not earlier?
We must consider that the war resumed in November 2020. The war has intensified, and Morocco is using new technology. Nevertheless, it seems that the Saharawi have the upper hand.
Morocco and their old ally, the US, are in a very bad situation economically and with social unrest, as well as Europe.
The western countries and Morocco also made a very unpopular and unwise decision in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, in short, they all bet on the wrong horse – Israel.
The massacre of Palestinians that has achieved numbers that surpass daily deaths of prisoners in World War II including children, is appalling. Although the slaughter is ongoing and impossible to even phantom from the outside the Palestinians are resisting and being an example to freedom fighters all over the world.
This worries the West. It can spill over.
The situation has escalated and now Palestinians have nothing to lose. That is the worst enemy you can have: a person/people that has nothing to lose.
Also, in the case of the Saharawi the war escalates and the timebomb is ticking. The war can spill over to the entire region as already mentioned by Polisario Front in several communications to the Security Council.
The intended Stalemate has one goal: to make the occupation a normal and accepted fact and the “erasing” of the Saharawi People, pushing in them into the role of touristic folklore.
In the history of the Saharawi People always when they were in advantage politically or militarily something was “given” or “promises were made” to calm the Saharawi down and prolong occupation.
In the last months of Spanish presence in Western Sahara a visit of the UN 4th committee of decolonization was made, but never followed up after the invasion by Morocco.
The 1991 promise and agreement of the holding of a referendum for the achievement of self determination of the Saharawi people was essential to the agreement on a cease fire. Again, according to several experts and the report of US military structure, Polisario had a fair chance of winning the war against Morocco. With the cease-fire this advantage slipped from the fingers of the Saharawi People.
In the years after the cease-fire a merry-go-round of UN secretary generals’ personal envoys and negotiations started. The result? Procrastination of the solution, of the referendum, demographic change of the occupied territories, forced impoverishment of the entire Saharawi Population, dependency on foreign aid and deterioration of the health status of the Saharawi population due to different factors in the occupied territories and the refugee camps.
Everything results in stalemate and “normalization” of an illegal situation.
Donations appear each time the Saharawi start to be restless and show more aggressive and firmer stance in the political arena. At that time donations appear, although the refugee emergency is always ongoing. In fact, the “help” is used also as a tool of control: if you behave like it suits us (Western World) we will give a bag of rice.
The “help” is not only through donations it is also in the form of Studies and financing that support the more definitive structure of the camps. In the idea of some the refugee camps can be transformed in a shanty town in Algeria where the Saharawi accept their fate and will pursue their livelihood until the end of the days.
Help that arrives in any form is never enough but always enough not to die of hunger.
In the meantime, terminology, and changes to the advantage of Morocco in the resolutions and the narrative is also changing at all levels, political, academical and social. Morocco with the help of his allies invest millions to change the narrative of occupation.
Time goes by and the hope of the “others”(Western World) is to make the Saharawi conform to the “normalization”, although we know that it will not work if we know history and the Saharawi people.
The demographic change in the occupied territories, the asylum requests abroad, diaspora, and the fact that many Saharawi have “apatrida” (stateless) or foreign nationality in their passport does not help the resolution of the conflict either.
In conclusion, the world seems not to be able or willing to respect international law and believes that charity can be a substitute for legality.
UN aid to the Saharawi refu… by porunsaharalibre.org
