What’s the future of the Western Sahara conflict?

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that the United Nations is ending its peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara after the United States and Russia blocked an extension of the mandate. The move affects a disputed territory in North Africa that has been at the center of a decades-long conflict and remains claimed by both Morocco and the Polisario Front.

According to the program, the dispute dates back more than 50 years to the end of Spanish colonial rule in the region. The UN deployed a peacekeeping mission in the 1990s as part of efforts to help reach a political settlement, but that track has now stalled. The article frames the latest UN decision as a significant turning point because the mission had been one of the main international mechanisms for managing tensions on the ground.

The broadcast raises the question of whether the end of the UN mission could increase the risk of renewed fighting or further harden the conflict. It includes analysis from experts and a Sahrawi rights advocate, reflecting the broader debate over self-determination, Moroccan sovereignty claims and the prospects for a negotiated solution. As a background matter, Western Sahara has long been treated as one of Africa’s most protracted territorial disputes, with periodic diplomatic efforts failing to produce a final settlement.