Spain sends aid to W Sahara

2006-02-15 10:12

Madrid - Spain is sending 10 tons of humanitarian aid to the Western Sahara after torrential rains left some 50 000 refugees there in urgent need of help, say aid workers and officials on Tuesday.

Spain's Red Cross and the foreign ministry said that the Spanish International Co-operation Agency had chartered two planes, which would leave on Wednesday for the Algerian city of Tindouf, carrying water, emergency rations and sheeting.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that floodwaters had destroyed mud brick houses and other shelters in three camps in the desert region of Tindouf.

The camps around Tindouf were home to tens of thousands of people who fled from Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1975 after Spain gave up its rule of the phosphate-rich region.

The Polisario Front, which fought a guerrilla war against Moroccan forces before a ceasefire in 1991, was demanding sovereignty for Western Sahara.

UN-brokered efforts to resolve the future of the territory were deadlocked, with the Polisario Front rejecting Morocco's offer of extensive autonomy.

- AFP