Front Line Defenders has condemned what it describes as an ongoing pattern of harassment, intimidation, home sieges, arbitrary detention and forced transfers targeting Sahrawi human rights defenders in occupied Western Sahara. The organization warned that Moroccan authorities are increasingly using isolation tactics and movement restrictions to prevent solidarity actions, obstruct human rights monitoring and punish defenders advocating for the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination.
According to the statement, Moroccan forces have surrounded the home of Sahrawi human rights defender Houssein Mojahid in occupied Laayoune since the night of 19 May 2026. Ali Salem Tamek, President of the Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders in Western Sahara, known as CODESA, was staying at the house with his wife and young son. Authorities reportedly prevented human rights defenders and relatives from entering the home and cut off the electricity supply.
Front Line Defenders also reported that CODESA Vice-President Khadijetou El Dweihi has been subjected to surveillance and intimidation around her home. The organization said these actions form part of a wider campaign to restrict peaceful assembly and obstruct legitimate human rights work in Western Sahara.
The recent incidents follow further reports of reprisals in Boujdour after the release of Sahrawi human rights defender and student movement leader Abdelmoula El Hafedh on 16 April 2026, following ten years of politically motivated detention. Moroccan authorities allegedly imposed a five-day siege on his family home to prevent activists, human rights defenders and civilians from visiting him after his release.
On 4 May 2026, El Hafedh was reportedly detained by Moroccan gendarmerie and auxiliary forces near Boujdour, questioned about his human rights activities and later abandoned about 60 kilometres away without explanation. Front Line Defenders also stated that Sahrawi woman human rights defender Elouara Khaya was assaulted and forcibly expelled on 17 April 2026 after travelling to Boujdour to welcome him.
The organization further reported that Leila Lili, another Sahrawi woman human rights defender, was abducted from a hotel in Boujdour on 9 May 2026 by plain-clothes Moroccan police officers and forcibly transferred to Laayoune. Boujemaa Benmoussa, a young CODESA member, was also reportedly stopped on 11 May 2026 while returning from the Sahrawi refugee camps, interrogated for several hours and subjected to threats, insults and confiscation of personal belongings.
Front Line Defenders said the incidents indicate a broader pattern of reprisals and collective punishment against Sahrawi human rights defenders. The organization called on Moroccan authorities to immediately end harassment, intimidation, sieges, arbitrary detention, forced transfers and isolation tactics, and to guarantee that human rights defenders in Western Sahara can carry out their peaceful work without fear of reprisals.
