New blogs, Western Sahara-related and not

People hungry for North Africa news or journalism writing are in luck:

• Alle, the great blogger behind Western Sahara Info, is refocusing his North Africa writing on a new group blog, Maghreb Politics Review. He kicked off his new empire with Algerian politics. While it'll let him share his expertise beyond Western Sahara (he knows a lot more about North Africa than that), he better not abandon WSI. It's an institution.
  
• Meanwhile, I launched the cleverly-named Will Sommer, a blog about the changes affecting journalism as it moves online (and the cool stuff that move creates). Check it out!

Before I get on with the business of managing two blogs at once, though, an apology: I haven't been up on Western Sahara lately. I got disheartened with how nothing ever changed in Western Sahara, and how it looked like nothing ever would. Before you say, "Try living it for 30 years," I know.

Fortunately, I'm reinvigorated by studying abroad in Cairo and a potential visit to Morocco. Most of all, though, commenters and readers seem to have stuck around and still care about this issue. So let's get to it! Please leave any new Western Sahara blogs in the comments so I can catch up.

Sahara-Watch and Western Sahara Info: the game always pulls them back

A Moroccan tank after Sahara-Watch and Alle got through with it

The "realistic" MINURSO renewal has brought some old hands back to blogging: Sahara-Watch and Alle at Western Sahara Info. Here's what they've been up to:

• Alle pondered what foreign policy eagles, as opposed to hawks and doves, should think about Western Sahara and relations with Algeria.
• Sahara-Watch thinks about Resolution 1813, the realism MINURSO renewal everyone's abuzz about, and wonders if it's time for Polisario to go to war. Also, he gets a little scoop on the Western Sahara blogosphere: Polisario is sick of Peter van Walsum.
  
• And oh, they collaborated! Alle and Sahara-Watch on Resolution 1813.
  

Glad to have those blogangsters back. Sahara-Watch is responsible for me entering the game, as he was the first person I contacted about Western Sahara. Gave me my first hit for free.

Photo by Nick Brooks used under Creative Commons license

Moroccan increases assaults on Sahrawi activists

It sounds like Morocco is going crazy in Western Sahara this month. I'd expect Morocco to play it cool until the autonomy plan is passed or rejected, but maybe the competing plans have excited the Sahrawis so much Morocco has to respond.

Western Sahara Info, the Norwegian Support Committee for the Western Sahara, and ASVDH (a Sahrawi human rights group) have extensive coverage of this recent outbreak of repression that's hitting Sahrawis, especially youths. Here's what's happening:

• Morocco arrested 3 young Sahrawis aged 13 and 14 after pro-independence demonstrations in El-Aiun. According to ASVDH, Morocco also tortured a 14 year-old boy. Seriously?
  
• Mohammed Tahlil, the Boujdour ASVDH representative, was beaten by security forces in El-Aiun.
• Amadayne el-Ouali, a 21 year-old Sahrawi active in the independence movement, was sentenced to 5 years in prison. Check out Western Sahara Info's highly-recommended profile of Amadayne. On the plus side, I think I have a crush on his self-determination- loving sister.
  

Can someone explain to me why MINURSO isn't getting a human rights component this renewal? [Kudos to Western Sahara Info for tipping me off to this latest wave of repression].

New Western Sahara blog is delicious, highly recommended if you have the means

New, knowledgeable One Hump commenter Alle has started a Western Sahara blog of his own, Western Sahara Info. Like his comments, it's entertaining and informative.

He (or she) does his (or her) research. Check out this exhaustive post on Mauritanian elections and what they mean for the Western Sahara. I also enjoyed the predictions about the future of CORCAS's autonomy plan.

Speaking of CORCAS, using his translation skills, Alle discovered that King Hassan II himself said autonomy was illegal. Speaking of it, he said, "That is, quite simply, impossible. I have no right to do it."

My favorite post so far, though, has been his dissection of different names for Western Sahara's capital, El Aaiún or Laâyoune (depending on which side you're on). According to Alle, El Aaiun emphasizes Western Sahara's separate colonial history, while the latter transliteration extends Morocco's Frenchness. I'll use whichever version doesn't require hard-to-place accent marks.

So, with Western Sahara Info starting and Sahara-Watch undergoing a revival, the Western Sahara blog community continues to grow. Writing this post, I discovered Sahara Views is back! It won't be long before we can't walk from our fat Technorati links.