A New, Old Crisis in Western Sahara

Ban Ki moon visited a refugee camp in Algeria that is home to people displaced by conflict in Western Sahara and he uttered remarks that created a diplomatic maelstrom.

Ban referred to the quote "occupation" of Western Sahara, by the government of Morocco.

UN Photo/Evan Schneider

Morocco responded with a massive government sponsored protest in the streets of Rabat, and also ceased cooperation with a UN peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara, including evicting civilian members of that mission. It has also threatened to pull its own troops from UN peacekeeping missions worldwide.

All because of a word.

With me to put this current diplomatic crisis into the larger context of the decades old dispute over the proper status of Western Sahara is Fiyola Hoosen-Steele. She is not a disinterested observer of this crisis. As the UN representative of the diplomatic advisory firm Independent Diplomat, she works with political representatives of the Western Saharan independence movement, known as the …