The UN confirms that Ban will travel to Western Sahara next week – Aguasdigital.com

                 Photo: EFE

Stock Image Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. EFE / File

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             The UN confirms that Ban will travel to Western Sahara next week

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26/02/2016 12:40 (-6 GTM )

                United Nations, 26 February (EFE) .- The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon will travel next week to the Western Sahara to address the conflict over the former Spanish colony, according to his spokesman confirmed today.
Ban’s visit will form part of a regional tour, which will also take him to Algeria, Mauritania and Burkina Faso, and will occur following paths stops in Geneva and Madrid.
the UN chief plans visit the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf and Rabuni meet with secretary General of the Polisario Front.
from there it will move to a base of the UN mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO), before traveling to Algiers .
Ban has among its priorities address the humanitarian situation of the Sahrawi population and preparing its next report on the conflict, he explained today his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.
the Korean diplomat will visit Rabat, after months of strong tension between the UN and the Moroccan Government on the Western Sahara, although Dujarric said Ban would be happy to go to the city at any time.
the United Nations special envoy to the region, Christopher Ross, and last week began a several-day trip to north Africa to prepare the visit of Ban.
in addition to visiting the Tindouf camps, Ross met with authorities in Morocco and Algeria, a country that already had advanced the visit Korean diplomat, who so far the UN had not wanted to confirm.
the trip UN chief Western Sahara is expected for months and marks an attempt to unblock the conflict, completely stagnated in recent years.
last November Ban called on all parties to launch “real negotiations in the coming months” with a view to a final settlement that allows the exercise of the right of self-determination by the Saharawi people.
However, for now those appeals have been unsuccessful, since Morocco is still not willing to start talks demanded by the UN.
Rabat submitted a proposal for autonomy for the area in 2007 and considers that this should be the basis for negotiation, while the Polisario insists on the need to convene as a referendum on self-determination.
This month, the Security Council endorsed UN Ban plans to visit the Sahara and its attempts to achieve a political solution to the conflict.
As usual every year, the highest decision making body of the United Nations intends to adopt a resolution on the issue this spring after receiving a report by the secretary General.
the UN it established in 1991 MINURSO in order to facilitate a referendum on the status of the former Spanish colony, a query that has never been held.