Thread by @SAHARAWIVOICE

What's happening in #Ceuta and why are Moroccans reaching its shores by the thousands? A short thread to explain this for English speakers with the expanded historical context, as information is hard to come by in English. Hint: it's about Western Sahara 1/

First things first: Ceuta is a Spanish territory north of Morocco (see the map below). Morocco has a weird and abusive relationship with Spain, whereby Rabat gets Madrid to do things by openly blackmailing and sabotaging the Spanish. But why is Morocco blackmailing Spain now? 2/

Well, it has to do with Western Sahara. Spain was the ruling colonizing power of Western Sahara. And now Western Sahara is under a Moroccan military occupation. How did this happen? Bear with us 3/

Spain ruled Western Sahara until a fierce indigenous uprising of the local Saharawis led by the liberation movement POLISARIO began in 1973. It made life hell for the Spanish and they ended up leaving in 1975. 4/

When Spain left Western Sahara in 1975, they were very bitter that the Africans resisted their divine rule, so they wanted to screw over the people of Western Sahara, the Saharawis. They were also bitter about not being able to plunder Saharawi natural resources anymore. 5/

At the same time, neighboring Morocco and Mauritania were sharpening their knives ready to occupy Western Sahara now that the Spanish were on the way out. They also wanted a slice of Western Sahara. Especially the natural resources. 6/

But Spain, Morocco and Mauritania realized that they could all join their forces against the Saharawis. Why fight when they all had a common goal, which is to subjugate the Saharawis and plunder their natural resources? How did they join forces? 7/

They got around a table and signed the infamous "Madrid Tripartite Agreement". This saw Spain giving the southern slice of Western Sahara to Mauritania, and the north slice to Morocco. It was done and dusted before Spain left. When they left both neighboring armies moved in 8/

The Saharawis, led by the independence group POLISARIO were not going to simply give up to the two new invading armies. They mounted a fierce guerilla resistance and took out the Mauritanians by 1979 (4 years later). They continued fighting the Moroccans until 1991. 9/

In 1991, a ceasefire was signed between the Saharawi POLISARIO and Morocco on the condition that a UN referendum would be held were Saharawis would decide if they wanted Western Sahara to merge with Morocco or be an independent state. 10/

Obviously, this referendum was never held because the Saharawis were absolutely going for independence, and Morocco has found every way to block it from going ahead for the past 30 years. We're getting to Ceuta soon. 11/

In November of last year, Saharawis were protesting in Guerguerat, southern Western Sahara. The Moroccan army said they would move in on the Saharawi protesters to forcibly end their protest. The POLISARIO said if you do that the ceasefire is over. 12/

Morocco moved its troops on the Saharawi protesters and so the ceasefire became a thing of the past in November of last year. Since then, there has been fighting between the Moroccan army and the Saharawi POLISARIO along the Moroccan wall that divides Western Sahara 13/

So now we come to today: the POLISARIO leader, Brahim Ghali, caught severe COVID and was airlifted to a Spanish hospital for treatment. The Moroccans were furious about Spain receiving him for treatment, which is weird given Spain has sovereignty over who it allows in or not. 14/

To send an angry message to Spain, Morocco opened its border, allowing Moroccans to swim to Spanish shores. The desperation of Moroccans is real. The economy is the most unequal in N. Africa. Moroccans risk their lives on dinghies to cross to Spain 15/

The fact that the borders were just opened and they were allowed to cross over was huge. Thousands of Moroccan swam to Spain's shores in #Ceuta. The Moroccan government is using the lives of ordinary Moroccans to send a hostile message to Madrid 16/16 FIN.