But the pro-independence movement, which Friday declared the end of an almost three-decade ceasefire in Western Sahara, said fighting continued in the disputed territory. But on Saturday, a Mauritanian security official and a senior Moroccan official said separately that truck traffic between Mauritania and the Western Sahara had resumed. The unrest in Western Sahara sparked a flurry of calls for restraint. Rabat controls 80 percent of the Western Sahara -- a vast swathe of desert on the Atlantic coast -- including its phosphate deposits and its lucrative ocean fisheries. Morocco maintains that Western Sahara is an integral part of the kingdom and has offered autonomy for the disputed territory, but insists it will retain sovereignty.

Source: Bangkok Post November 14, 2020 23:37 UTC