Morocco Uses Armed Drones in Western Sahara, Killing Polisario Fighters Near Bir Lahlou

Morocco has intensified its offensive in Western Sahara with armed drones, turning a conflict described as frozen into a high-tech war against the Polisario Front.

“Useful links Sections Services Sectors Newsletters en The Government avoids condemning the Moroccan attack on Polisario and takes refuge in prudence, while the Front accuses it of applying double standards”

Demócrata

The conflict opposes Morocco and the Polisario Front since the 1970s, with Rabat controlling about 80% of the territory and the Polisario administering zones east of the sand wall.

El Mundo

The rupture of the ceasefire in 2020 followed Sahrawi protesters blocking the road of Guerguerat in November 2020, after which Morocco deployed troops to reopen the axis and fighting resumed.

The drones are described as enabling precise operations, including an April 2023 case where a Bayraktar TB2 eliminated a convoy of the Polisario near Bir Lahlou, killing three fighters.

A senior Polisario official is quoted saying the first drone attack by the Moroccan army took place on January 5, 2021, shortly after the ceasefire was broken in Guerguerat in November 2020.

Algeria accuses Morocco of carrying out "targeted assassinations" that killed three civilians in the portion of Western Sahara controlled by the Polisario, with the attack occurring not far from the Mauritanian border.

RFI reports that the first drone strike targeted an Algerian truck, causing light injuries, and the other hit a convoy of civilian cars near the Aïn Ben Tili border post, where Sahrawi witnesses said the convoy had just left a mosque.

El Mundo America

In Spain, Demócrata reports that government spokesperson minister Elma Saiz invoked "prudence" to avoid explicitly condemning the attack in which three Polisario members, including a son of former president Mohamed Abdelaziz, died.

Demócrata also quotes Polisario representative in Spain Abdulah Arabi denouncing that the attack, in which Lehbib Mohamed Abdelaziz and two other members died, "adds to the numerous attacks already committed, indiscriminately, by Morocco in recent years".

RFI says the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs points the finger at Morocco, denouncing "belligerent practices that resemble repetitive acts of state terrorism" and warning of "serious risks of potentially dangerous regional drift."

The drone campaign is described as reshaping the conflict’s balance, with the Morocco intensifying high-tech surveillance and strikes while the Polisario is portrayed as facing a technological gap.

“In the silent war being fought in the sands of the Sahara, a conflict away from the world's attention, Morocco not only attempted to decapitate the future of the Polisario Front by killing Lahbib Abdelaziz, son of the organization's founder, Mohamed Abdelaziz, but also displayed a technological prowess that is beginning to intimidate its neighbors, including our country”

El Mundo America

El Mundo America says that since 2021, 67% of these attacks have been carried out in border areas where Sahrawi and Mauritanian civilians regularly roam, and it cites figures from the Sahrawi Mine Action Coordination Office recording 160 civilian victims, including 80 fatalities.

El Mundo America also describes a November 2021 case with diplomatic consequences, saying three Algerian truck drivers transporting construction materials to Mauritania were bombed and killed on the spot, and that Algeria recalled its ambassador.

Yabiladi reports that for the past few days, Polisario members have been entering territories west of the Sand Wall, with a source close to the matter saying FAR drones are monitoring these movements.

Yabiladi frames the situation as connected to discussions initiated by the Trump administration between Morocco, Algeria, the Polisario, and Mauritania, and it adds that since the Front withdrew from the ceasefire on November 13, 2020, about 5,000 Sahrawis have left the area east of the Sand Wall, according to figures from the Sahrawi Red Crescent (SRC).