Two Mauritanians were killed in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, their government said on Wednesday, after local media attributed a deadly bombing to Morocco.
According to local media linked to the Saharawi independence movement Polisario Front, a Moroccan airstrike on Sunday hit trucks in Western Sahara near the border with Mauritania, killing three people.
The deaths could not be independently verified.
“Based on what we know, two Mauritanians died in the incident that took place on Sunday,” government spokesman Mohamed Melainine Ould Eyih told reporters.
Algeria, which broke diplomatic relations with neighboring Morocco last year, accused Rabat on Tuesday of committing “selective assassinations” and “repeated acts of state terrorism.”
Morocco considers Western Sahara as part of its territory, but Algeria supports the Polisario Front, which has been demanding an independence referendum in this former Spanish colony for decades.
Tensions in the territory have increased in Western Sahara since the Polisario declared a 30-year ceasefire null and void in November 2020.
A month later, the United States, with Donald Trump as president, recognized Rabat’s sovereignty over Western Sahara.
