Peace Prevails in Morocco’s Mahbes, Despite Algeria’s War Claims

Contrary to the stories shared by both Algeria and the Polisario leadership, there are no signs of “war” or “military attacks” in Mahbes where calm and stability prevail.

Rabat – With Algeria claiming that Polisario’s attacks against Morocco’s army are ongoing and yielding results in Mahbes, a buffer zone and a UN-restricted area in Morocco’s southern provinces, Morocco World News (MWN) visited the town and found an atmosphere of calm and stability in the region.

While undermining Morocco’s territorial integrity has long been among the top priorities of successive Algerian governments, the Algerian political etsbalihsment’s obsession with Morocco appears to have exponentially grown in recent years.

Algeria’s news agency, APS, has in recent months been dedicating almost the whole “International” section of its website to reporting on supposed attacks against Morocco’s military in Mahbes, 50 kilometers from Tindouf.

Just yesterday, APS claimed another “war achievement,” stressing that Polisario has intensified attacks targeting Morocco’s military forces in the town of Mahbes. 

APS quoted Polisario officials as saying that “the units of Polisario army bombed the zones of the Moroccan forces in the Lakaad region in the Mahbes town.”

Mahbes is the closest town to the Algerian border in north-eastern Western Sahara.

Earlier today, MWN streamed from the town. And contrary to the stories shared by both APS and the Polisario leadership, there are no signs of “war” or “military attacks” as calm and stability prevail in the region.

In fact, MWN’s eight-minute live stream captured people flying the Moroccan flag and going about their everyday activities in a peaceful and undisturbed atmosphere. 

As the main sponsor of Polisario’s statehood sepratist goals, Algeria shelters, finances, and arms Polisario. In addition, the Algerian regime has repeatedly signaled its readiness to sabotage UN-led mediation efforts unless they result in the creation of a state in Morocco’s southern provinces. 

In what many analysts have described as the ultimate expression of Algeria and Polisario’s frustration with the UN-led political process, both Algeria and the Polisario leadership recently rejected the latest UN resolution on Western Sahara. 

Meanwhile, the separatist Polisario Front has a well-documented history of intermittent military provocations in the buffer zone.

In November 2020, the separatist group blocked the movement of people and goods for several weeks across the Moroccan-Mauritanian border in Guerguerat, which is surrounded by a UN-mandated buffer zone. 

Infuriated by Morocco’s deployment of a contingent to foil its military maneuvers and establish a security corridor in Guerguerat, Polisario launched many failed attacks on the Moroccan defense wall in Mahbes. 

Since then, the Polisario and Algerian establishment media have brought their infowar to a new level by fabricating news of a “raging war” in many towns in Morocco’s southern provinces.