Fears grow for Sahrawi prisoner entering sixth week of hunger strike in Morocco

Rights groups have called for the immediate release of a Sahrawi political prisoner in Morocco as he nears his sixth week of a hunger strike.

Naama Asfari started his indefinite hunger strike on 8 June while detained in Kenitra prison, north of the city of Rabat, in an attempt to force Moroccan authorities to comply with UN rulings calling for his release.

Asfari has been in prison since 2010 over his involvement in the Gdeim Izik protest camp in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara, which sought to highlight the ongoing human rights abuses, poverty and discrimination inflicted on the native Sahrawis by the Moroccan authorities.

The camp, which was erected in October that year near the city of Laayoune, was broken up by Moroccan security services with as many as 36 civilians killed and around 3,000 arrested.

Morocco said that 11 police officers were also killed during the November 2010 operation.

The incident led to widespread condemnation internationally, with some even citing it as a precursor to the Arab Spring uprisings which would erupt just weeks later.

Asfari and other imprisoned members of the camp were convicted of involvement in the killing of the Moroccan police officers.

However, according to the UN Committee Against Torture (CAT), statements made by Asfari and his colleagues were obtained through torture and coercion and has called for their convictions to be quashed.

Families members of Asfari say he has now lost approximately nine kilogrammes and is refusing to cooperate with the prison doctor and has foregone his daily exercise period.

The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) called on Morocco to comply with the ruling from CAT as well as a UN Working Group on Arbritrary Detention opinion from 2023 that ordered his release.

"ISHR is gravely concerned by the risks posed to Asfari’s health and calls on the Moroccan authorities to take urgent steps to safeguard his life and physical integrity," the group said in a statement.

Occupied by Morocco since 1975, the Western Sahara has been claimed by native Sahrawis, while the Algeria-backed Polisario Front has fought against the Moroccan state for independence for decades.

Hundreds of thousands of Sahrawi refugees live across the border in camps in southwestern Algeria, while independence campaigners in Western Sahara have faced repeated repression by Moroccan authorities.