An anti-terrorism forum held this week in Nouakchott, Mauritania's capital, called for a "national charter" to face the threat of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and for "dialogue with the extremists" who are willing to surrender. It also recommended "creation of a center that would teach the culture of moderation" and a social policy to "dry up the sources of terrorism and extremism by fighting ignorance, poverty and exclusion." However, Defense Minister Hamadi Ould Hamadi ended the forum with a shout of: "We will never negotiate with those who bear arms against their country, we will respond to them with weapons!"

A 14-year-old boy was killed Oct. 24 when Moroccan security forces intervened in a protest encampment established by indigenous Sahrawi residents about 14 kilometers outside Laayoune, capital of the occupied territory of Western Sahara. Tens of thousands of Sahrawis have erected tents to protest the social policy of Morocco in the territory, and to demand their right to employment, housing and a decent living. (Magharebia, Oct. 25)

French uranium company Areva and its subcontractor Vinci have evacuated all their expatriate employees working at the Arlit and Imouraren mines in northern Niger following the abduction of five French and two African workers. Both Niger and France fear they were seized by militants of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Niger's ex-foreign minister Idi Ango Omar told Anfani radio that private security groups employed at the mines were run by former Tuareg rebels, and denounced the arrangement—in an evident attempt to link the Tuareg insurgency to al-Qaeda. (France24, Sept. 19)

In what were surely welcome words in Rabat, the top police official of the rebel Polisario Front broached the possibility of autonomy rather than independence for Morocco-occupied Western Sahara last week. Speaking at a press conference in the occupied territory's town of Smara, Polisario Police Inspector-General Mustapha Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud said the proposed autonomy initiative is the best possible solution to the Western Sahara conflict: "In the past, we had two conflicting options: either to integrate into Morocco or become independent. Today we have a third option that helps us achieve our main objective, which is the Sahrawi distinction." Today, the Polisario Front only has power in Tindouf, a desert town and refugee camp under their control across the Algerian border. (Magharebia, Aug. 11)

Moroccan protesters blockaded the border with the Spanish enclave of Melilla Aug. 13, effectively shutting it down. Since mid-July, Morocco's government has issued five statements accusing Spanish police of abusing Moroccans in the enclave, as well as charging that a Spanish civil guard sea patrol abandoned a boat filled with eight ill African migrants in the Mediterranean after intercepting them trying to enter Spain. "The Kingdom of Morocco is astonished that no official answer was offered by Spanish authorities until now over the cases of racist drift by the Spanish police," said the Foreign Ministry in a statement. The two countries' kings spoke by telephone this week to try to ease tensions. (AP, Aug. 13; Reuters, Expatica, Aug. 11)

Western Sahara's Polisario Front rebels on May 2 condemned the UN Security Council for not including human rights in resolution 1920, extending by one year the mandate of the UN mission for the Morocco-occupied territory, MINURSO. But in a victory for Morocco, the text makes no mention of any explicit mechanism to monitor allegations of human rights violations. "Unfortunately, we believe this is a scandal for the credibility of the United Nations and the Security Council," Polisario Front's Mohamed Abdelaziz told AFP at a refugee camp for Western Sahara refugees in Algeria.

Moroccan authorities "violently" put down peaceful protests in Western Sahara earlier this week, local human rights activist Aminatou Haidar said March 10. The crackdown on the two protests was Rabat's "response" to a request made by EU president Herman Van Rompuy at an EU-Morocco summit in Spain over the weekend that Morocco make progress on human rights, Haidar said in a statement.

In a surprise move, Mauritania's Constitutional Council on March 4 rejected 10 articles of an anti-terrorism law passed by country's parliament in January. The 10 articles that were thrown out as unconstitutional would have allowed tapping of telephone calls and e-mail, as well as warrantless home searches and night raids on houses at any time. Other articles would have allowed the incarceration of minors, extended the period of "preventive detention" by the police to four years and barred any challenge to terrorism charges made by police.