UN Ends 35-Year Western Sahara Peacekeeping Mission After Security Council Deadlock

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara ended on 1 November 2026 after 35 years. MINURSO, established after the 1991 ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario Front, entered its liquidation phase when the Security Council failed to renew its mandate.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres confirmed the start of the wind-down. Assets belonging to troop-contributing countries will return home under a smaller support team from the Department of Operational Support. Twenty MINURSO personnel died during the mission. Its authorised strength stood at 534 personnel and its 2026-2027 budget exceeded $62 million. Egypt, Ghana and Pakistan provided the largest troop contingents.

The mission monitored the ceasefire and prepared for a referendum on the territory's status that never occurred. Disputes over voter eligibility blocked the vote for decades. Morocco claims sovereignty over Western Sahara. The Polisario Front, backed by Algeria, seeks independence for the former Spanish colony.

Friday's Security Council session produced the impasse. Russia vetoed a US-drafted resolution that would have endorsed Morocco's autonomy plan under Rabat's sovereignty as the most feasible solution and scaled back the force. A competing Russian resolution that sought to extend the mission without that political framing received only three votes. The mandate therefore expired at midnight on Saturday.

Morocco welcomed the outcome. Polisario leaders expressed concern. Guterres stated that the mission's end does not remove the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination. He called on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and warned of the risk of escalation. The UN will continue supporting dialogue through Personal Envoy Staffan de Mistura.

Last year the Council adopted a US text that described Morocco's plan as the most feasible path. Russia abstained then. This year's veto and failed alternative left no legal basis for the force to continue. Hostilities have continued at a low level despite the 1991 ceasefire. The departure of monitors removes the only international presence that regularly reported on incidents along the berm and in the buffer zone.

Troop contributors must now extract equipment from Laayoune and other sites. The process will take weeks. Local populations on both sides of the berm face the loss of a neutral observer that, for all its limitations, provided a channel for complaints and a check on larger-scale clashes. Regional actors including Algeria and Mauritania will watch how Rabat and the Polisario adjust their positions once the UN flag is gone.

The Security Council has not scheduled further action on Western Sahara. Any new mandate would require fresh agreement between Washington and Moscow. Until then, the territory reverts to the status that existed before 1991: a disputed zone without an international peacekeeping presence.