Christopher Ross in flood-hit Sahrawi camps to measure extent of damage

 UN personal envoy for Western Sahara, Christopher Ross, visited the Saharawi refugee camps, which houses and properties were damaged by floods in recent days, reported the Sahrawi news agency (SPS) Sunday.

According to the same source, the visit paid the day before to the provinces of Boudjedour, Smara and Aousserd, allowed the UN envoy to inquire about the extent of damage of houses and properties of Sahrawi refugees and the need to send urgent humanitarian aid to protect the refugees against cold and hunger, especially after the breakdown of food stocks, waiting for a political solution to end the suffering of the Sahrawi people.

In addition, Ross met with Sahrawi Minister of Interior Hamma Salama, to inquire about the damage of this natural disaster, before meeting Sunday with the Sahrawi delegation to the negotiations which will remind the UN envoy of the requests of the African Union and the Sahrawis to the international community to "set a date for the holding of a self-determination referendum in Western Sahara, being the only solution to this lingering conflict."

Ross is on tour in the region, as part of his efforts to relaunch negotiations between the Polisario Front and Morocco, parties to the conflict in Western Sahara, in order to achieve a just and lasting peaceful solution to the Western Sahara issue through the exercise by the Sahrawi people of their right to self-determination.