Moroccan-Mauritanian Relations In Crisis

Moroccan-Mauritanian relations are on the verge of deteriorating since a Moroccan army drone attacked Mauritanian nationals who were prospecting for gold in the occupied Sahrawi territories more than a week ago. The movement of Moroccan trucks through the Guerguerat corridor has come to a halt due to measures taken by Nouakchott, which reeks of what it has overflowed, enough of Morocco’s insistence on murdering Mauritanians in cold blood.
The Mauritanian measure consists of a 171 percent increase in customs duties on the passage of Moroccan trucks at the Guerguerat border crossing, which connects Mauritania to Western Sahara and was the subject of confrontations between Sahrawi freedom fighters and the Moroccan army about three years ago.
The announcement of the lifting of customs duties on Moroccan trucks bound for West African countries that cross Mauritanian territory was preceded by protests by Moroccan truck drivers demanding that their country’s authorities provide them with protection from armed and masked people who deliberately empty the tanks of trucks at gunpoint before they leave. Selling on Mauritanian markets.
The newspaper “Morocco 360”, described as the official mouthpiece of the palace and owned by Mounir Majidi, the private secretary of Moroccan King Mohammed VI, revealed the rate of increase in customs duties, which reached 171 percent, describing it as very high. It said that the cost of customs clearance for a large truck load, which was estimated at 70 thousand ouguiyas (the Mauritanian currency), or about 1,600 euros, rose to more than 190 thousand ouguiyas, or about 4,600 euros.
According to the same sources, truck drivers transporting Moroccan fruits and vegetables to West African countries via Mauritania were surprised by this increase and are currently stuck at the Guerguerat border crossing between Western Sahara and Mauritania. They are unable to pay the customs duties that have suddenly fallen on their heads.
Identical reports spoke of a complete halt to the movement of Moroccan trucks through the Guerguerat crossing. The reason was not the huge increase in customs duties of almost 200 percent, but another problem: unidentified armed groups attacking Moroccan trucks and forcing them to empty their fuel tanks.
What is interesting about these accelerating events is that they followed the Moroccan army drones that targeted and killed four Mauritanian gold prospectors. It is likely that they got lost in the desert and arrived in the occupied desert areas, so the Moroccan army liquidated them in cold blood, which leads to the belief that the decision to raise the fees at this high level is a Mauritanian punitive measure against the Moroccan Makhzen regime, which usually does not give value to the Mauritanian state, which it considers, as its elites claim, part of what they call the crumbling Alawite “empire”.