A 14-year old boy was shot and killed by Moroccan police last Sunday.
Several reports now confirm that Elgarhin Nayern Foidal suffered a fatal blow, and later died in hospital from the injuries inflicted by the police The boy was in a car on his way to the newly established protest camps outside the city of El Aiun in Western Sahara, when police officers opened fire on the vehicle. Five others were injured following the impasse. Among the injured was Elgarhin's brother.
The incident comes as tension is rising in the occupied territories. For two weeks, many Saharawis, numbering between 5,000-20,000, have set up a protest camp outside of El Aiun. The demonstration is a joint protest against the Moroccan occupation of their country, as well as the deteriorating social conditions for the Saharawis.
The killing had led to widespread condemnation. One of the British MPs, Jeremy Corbyn, called the incident "a tragedy and a disgrace."
In a decision published yesterday, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concludes that the detention of the Saharawi student and human rights defender Al-Hussein Al-Bachir Ibrahim is arbitrary. The UN Working Group called on Morocco to immediately release him from the deplorable prison conditions.
Two more Norwegians, who travelled to occupied Western Sahara to learn about Morocco’s controversial energy projects in the territory, were detained by Moroccan police this afternoon and deported.
Today, 25 Moroccan police officers showed up to expel two Norwegians from occupied Western Sahara. The two had traveled to learn what the Sahrawis think about Morocco's controversial renewable energy projects on occupied land.
Sahrawi civil society welcomes a new report from the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearance, and urges exhumations and identification of victims in the Morocco-occupied Western Sahara.