The UN's peacekeepers are gone after 35 years in Western Sahara. So will the guns stay silent?

So here's what's happening in Western Sahara, and why you should care.

Morocco says it's sticking to the ceasefire in Western Sahara, even though there are no UN peacekeepers left to watch it.

As reported by cbinews.tv, the UN Security Council failed to extend the mission last week after the US and Russia vetoed each other's resolutions. That ends a mission that's been on the ground since 1988.

On Wednesday, Morocco's Royal Palace said its "voluntary commitment" to the truce won't change, with King Mohammed VI ordering officials to protect the country's territorial integrity and residents. Rabat actually welcomed the end of the mission, Algeria said it deeply regrets it, and the Polisario Front said it's concerned.

This isn't just desert politics. This is about 600,000 people living in a disputed, mineral-rich territory the size of the UK, rich in phosphates and with Atlantic fishing waters. The UN calls it a "non-self-governing territory", critics call it Africa's last colony.

Morocco controls almost 80% of it behind a huge sand wall, or berm, and calls it its Southern Provinces. The Polisario Front, based in refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria, says it's the homeland of the indigenous Sahrawi people and wants an independent state. Around 174,000 Sahrawi refugees still live in those camps, according to UNHCR estimates.

Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony in 1975. That sparked a 16-year war that killed over 16,000 people, according to the French Senate. A ceasefire was agreed in 1991 on the promise of a referendum, a referendum that never happened.

That ceasefire has held, mostly, ever since. But without MINURSO, the UN mission, there's no neutral eye on the ground.

Next Steps

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of a real risk of escalation and urged restraint.

Morocco has momentum, it now has backing from Washington, Paris and London for its autonomy plan. The Polisario, backed by Algeria, Russia and South Africa, has seen support shrink.

The next step? No peacekeepers, no referee. The question is whether Morocco's voluntary truce holds, or whether we see a return to low-level clashes in the Free Zone east of the berm. For the Sahrawis stuck in the middle, the stalemate just got more uncertain.

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