{"id":131672,"date":"2026-11-02T13:41:18","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T08:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=131672"},"modified":"2026-11-02T14:41:57","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T09:11:57","slug":"western-sahara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/western-sahara\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Sahara: UN Peacekeeping Mission to End After 35 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Western Sahara Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, the UN chief said that the 35-year-old UN peacekeeping mission in the Western Sahara region (MINURSO)<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">will come to an end after the Security Council failed to renew its mandate.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Western Sahara<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Western Sahara is a vast, sparsely-populated desert region in <\/span><b>Northwest Africa.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is part of the <\/span><b>Maghreb region<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of North and West Africa.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Bordering Countries:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It shares its land borders with <\/span><b>Morocco and Algeria<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the north and northeast respectively, and <\/span><b>Mauritania <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to the east and south.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Water Body:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It also has a long <\/span><b>coast with the <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/atlantic-ocean\/\" target=\"_blank\">Atlantic Ocean<\/a><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the West and Northwest.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a region <\/span><b>rich in phosphates<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and other minerals and has a <\/span><b>lucrative fishing industry<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on its Atlantic coast.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO)<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was established in 1991 to support the <\/span><b>settlement proposals and ceasefire<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> reached by <\/span><b>Morocco and Frente Polisario.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since the establishment of the Mission, <\/span><b>MINURSO headquarters<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has been located in <\/span><b>Laayoune,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the main city in Western Sahara.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Focus: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It contributes to <\/span><b>peace and stability in Western Sahara<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by monitoring, investigating and reporting on the ongoing situation, and working with the parties to reduce tensions as they arise.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b><strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/un-peacekeeping-mission-western-sahara-ends-after-35-years-un-chief-says-2026-11-01\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Reuters<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The United Nations&#8217; 35-year-old peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara, known as MINURSO, is winding down after the UN Security Council failed to renew its mandate. Established in 1991 to monitor the ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario Front, the mission was also tasked with organising a referendum on the disputed territory&#8217;s future. The development brings renewed attention to Western Sahara&#8217;s unresolved political status and its strategic location along the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":131661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,22,23,11300],"class_list":["post-131672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-prelims-pointers","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-western-sahara","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131672"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131726,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131672\/revisions\/131726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}