“With North Africa still stunned by the destabilizations of the Arab Spring, and conflicts in Mali and Libya continuing, there is no appetite in neighboring countries for a new outbreak of war over Western Sahara. Nevertheless, over the past year I have heard Algerian officials and both Western and African diplomatic advisers to the Polisario Front privately acknowledge that after a quarter century of Moroccan obstructions and United Nations complacency, the only option left for Sahrawis is to pick up arms and fight for the territory.”

Hannah Armstrong is a writer and analyst on North Africa and the Sahel.