The Saharawi president stated that the military actions will persist unless the United Nations envoy for the conflict is provided with a clear mandate to organize the referendum on self-determination.

Ghali urged the members of the UN Security Council to establish at its session on October 28 a clear mandate to decolonize Western Sahara and convene a referendum on the territory.

The conflict started in 1975 when Spain, until then the colonial power, left the area and Morocco launched what it called the Green March: thousands of its citizens who occupied and settled in Western Sahara areas.

For the UN, Western Sahara is the last territory to be decolonized in Africa, but several of its envoys have failed to organize a referendum about the issue.

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