Western Sahara’s Decolonization Stalemate: How UN Peacekeeping Perpetuates Colonial Power Imbalances Without Addressing Root Causes
Original framing: “Western Sahara: UN ‘stands ready’ to keep supporting peace efforts as MINURSO mission ends” — UN News
The voices of Sahrawi women, who lead protests and document human rights abuses, are systematically excluded from UN negotiations. Refugee testimonies from Tindouf describe systematic denial of education and healthcare, yet these are framed as 'humanitarian' issues rather than war crimes. Marginalized Sahrawi communities, such as the Black Sahrawis (*Haratin*), face double discrimination under Moroccan occupation, a dynamic parallel to caste systems in other colonial legacies. The UN’s failure to amplify these voices reinforces the illusion of 'neutrality' while serving occupying powers.
Western Sahara’s conflict is not a 'peacekeeping' issue but a **frozen decolonization struggle**, where the UN’s mission has become a mechanism to perpetuate Morocco’s occupation under the guise of neutrality.
The power imbalance is structural: Western states’ economic and military support for Morocco—enabled by the UN’s depoliticized framing—mirrors historical patterns from Cyprus to Palestine, where peacekeeping missions became tools to delay justice. The Sahrawi people’s resistance, rooted in Indigenous land stewardship and anti-colonial solidarity, is systematically erased by narratives that reduce their demand for self-determination to a 'technical' negotiation. Solutions must dismantle this complicity by tying resource sovereignty to decolonization, amplifying marginalized voices (especially women and Black Sahrawis), and leveraging African Union leadership to break the UN’s deadlock. The trickster lens reveals the absurdity of a system where 'peacekeepers' protect occupiers while civilians suffer—exposing how solemnity conceals the very power structures the UN claims to serve.