April 12
18:15 – 19:30
Ekonomikum, hörsal 1
Western Sahara is known as the last colony of Africa and has been under the occupation of Morocco since 1975. This long-running occupation has been largely left aside in the international conversation despite its implications on the security and stability in the region. Today, Western Sahara is a divided country and people with an ongoing war since November 2020 between the national liberation movement, POLISARIO Front, and Moroccan forces.
The intrisic mediation of United Nations to stabilize the zone hasn’t been fruitful to date. Their promise to organize and conduct a referendum and monitor the ceasefire hasn’t ben fufilled, since the referendum that was supposed to take place in 1992, and until today there are no indicatives that it’s coming in the nearby future, and adding to the chaos, ceasefire was broken in 2020 when Morocco violated an UN-monitored buffer zone.
This lecture is organized in collaboration with Emmaus Stockholm, an NGO which focuses on supporting Western Sahara’s fight for liberation, peace and human rights.
Senia Bachir Abderahman
is the representative for POLISARIO Front in Norway and Sweden. She grew up in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria, where around 175 000 Sahrawis have been living since the 1970’s. Senia continued her education in universities in Norway and USA after having received primary and secondary education in the camps and in Algeria. Since then, she has worked for the African Union in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, and as a political advisor for the African Union Commission Chairperson for six years.
