In a recent statement, Nafi Ahmed Mohamed, Secretary General of the Union of Saharawi Journalists and Writers, denounced the increasing Moroccan repression in Western Sahara. Freedom of expression, considered a crime by the Moroccan occupation, has led Saharawi journalists to face illegal arrests and inhumane conditions behind bars.
Mohamed highlighted the plight of Saharawi media professionals, unjustly imprisoned in Moroccan jails, paying the price for freedom of expression. During a break in the campaign against Morocco’s candidacy for the presidency of the UN Human Rights Council, the Union of Saharawi Journalists and Writers revealed the systematic persecution of Saharawi journalists. Homes are besieged, phone calls and social media accounts are traced, all with the aim of silencing the truth.
The Union of Saharawi Journalists and Writers made an urgent appeal to international organisations to release Saharawi political detainees, especially journalists who, in protest against inhumane conditions of detention, go on hunger strikes. The Moroccan repression, according to Mohamed, is a tactic to undermine the morale of the Saharawi people and attack their identity in a psychological war.
As Morocco seeks to chair the UN Human Rights Council, the international community must unite to confront abuses in Western Sahara. The Union of Saharawi Journalists and Writers calls on writers and media professionals to defend the justice of the Saharawi people’s struggle and resist colonial policies. The Moroccan occupation, which seeks to undermine Saharawi unity, faces resistance from those who seek truth and justice amidst an intensification of the occupation and the closure of the region to international observers.
