(tsa-algerie) Much has been happening over the last few days on the border between Mauritania and the Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara.
With one event following another, from the murder of civilians by Moroccan drones to the increase in customs duties at the El Guerguerat crossing, it is difficult to talk of a simple coincidence.
According to the Moroccan website 360.ma, the Mauritanian authorities have suddenly decided to increase by 171% the customs taxes applied to Moroccan goods entering Mauritania through the El Guerguerat crossing, at the southern tip of the Western Sahara.
In a report posted online on its X page on Sunday 7 January, the Moroccan newspaper reported that several Moroccan goods lorries are blocked at the crossing point, which Morocco is occupying illegally.
Drivers and shopkeepers explained that customs tariffs had suddenly and without warning risen from €1,600 to €4,600 for a heavy goods vehicle.
Caught off guard, the drivers who turned up at the border were unable to cross because they could not pay the required amounts. They remain stranded on the other side of the border.
Even if they manage to pay the taxes, it will be difficult for them to sell their goods, mainly fruit and vegetables, on Mauritanian markets because of the repercussions of the increase in customs clearance taxes on prices.
According to Moroccan statistics, 45,000 lorries crossed the El Guerguerat crossing in 2022.
Morocco – Mauritania: Makhzen’s dangerous game
The attack on this area in November 2020 by the Moroccan army led the Polisario Front to announce the resumption of the armed struggle, accusing Morocco of having violated the 1991 ceasefire agreements.
The decision by the Mauritanian authorities to increase customs tariffs comes amid reports of a new attack by the Moroccan army on Mauritanian civilians in the same El Guerguerat area.
On 31 December, a number of media outlets, including the Spanish news agency EFE, reported that three Mauritanian nationals had been killed by a Moroccan army drone strike.
According to the same source, the three victims were gold diggers. This is not the first time that Mauritanian or Algerian civilians have been targeted by the Moroccan army on the border between Western Sahara and Mauritania.
On 1 November 2021, three Algerian shopkeepers were killed by Moroccan aircraft. This provocation against Algeria was taken up by several international organisations at a time of high tension between the two countries and at a time when Morocco was intensifying its military relations with Israel. Attacks against Mauritanians are even more recurrent.
There is reason to wonder whether there is not a link between these murders of Mauritanian civilians and the decision by the authorities in Nouakchott. All the more so as another fact preceded these two events.
On 23 December, Morocco convened a meeting in Marrakech of the foreign ministers of four Sahelian countries, to which it proposed a geostrategic and economic alliance with the promise of “opening up” the region through the use of Moroccan port infrastructure. The countries in question are Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad, all of which have no access to the sea.
Some observers saw this as yet another attempt by Rabat to undermine the Algerian trans-Saharan road project, just as it is trying to do with the Nigeria-Algeria gas pipeline project.
Opening up the four Sahel countries, as proposed by Morocco, depends on Mauritania’s agreement. This raises legitimate questions about the correlation between all these events.
