The Trade Union of Saharawi Workers in El Aaiún, occupied Western Sahara, started a general strike this morning, denouncing the “policy of segregation applied by Morocco” and the “plundering of Saharawi natural resources”.
The workers started demonstrating in front of the Department of Mines and Energy on Smara Boulevard in Western Sahara's capital El Aaiún at 8:45 this morning.
It wasn’t long before the Moroccan police fiercely intervened to disperse the gathered protesters. According to eye-witnesses, 14 people got injured in the event. Western Sahara Resource Watch has received names of the injured Saharawis.
The strike was agreed upon during a recent extraordinary meeting of the Trade Union, which aimed to assess the situation of Saharawi workers and pensioners, with particular attention devoted to the Fosboucraa workers.
“The Moroccan government’s policy of impoverishment and racial segregation in the occupied territory of Western Sahara has become unbearable: the Saharawi workers’ basic human rights are violated, the natural resources are plundered and the MINURSO has failed to organise a self-determination referendum for the Saharawi”, the assembly concluded.
Similar grievances led hundreds of unemployed Saharawi graduates to take to the streets of Rabat during the first half of July.
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