Morocco News at Maroc Info

Three Mauritanian political parties - the People 's Rally Party (PRP), the Mauritanian Renewal Party (PMR) and the Rally for Just i ce and Equality (RJE) - have expressed support for the Moroccan initiative for the autonomy of the Western Sahara.

This is prompted by the "importance of Morocco's territorial integrity in mainta ining peace and stability" in the Arab Maghreb sub-region, the parties said in a statement in Nouakchott on Saturday.

One man describes a harrowing dash through a minefield, his pregnant wife in tow, as they raced to escape from the very rebels who were supposed to be protecting them.

Another talks of unmarried pregnant women and unwed mothers, including rape victims, held at a prison camp in North Africa.

The stories, recounted by five Western Saharan refugees on a Moroccan-sponsored trip to the U.S., shed light on the conflict between Morocco and the Polisario Front rebel movement over a mineral-rich region claimed by both.

Morocco Thursday expressed its willingness to reopen the land border with Algeria, closed since 1994, and a return to normal relations between the two neighbours.
In a statement published in Rabat, the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation said Morocco "calls in brotherly friendship and full sincerity for normal bilateral relations and the reopening of the border between the two countries".