Morocco marks the 51st Green March anniversary as the UN mission winds down
Morocco marked the 51st anniversary of the Green March in Laayoune on Friday, the first commemoration since the UN Security Council let the MINURSO peacekeeping mission lapse; a mission created in 1991 that never held the referendum it was built for.
Published 6 November 2026 · 11:11 GMT
The summary
Morocco marked the 51st anniversary of the Green March on Friday 6 November 2026, with commemorations in Laayoune, the largest city in the Moroccan Southern Provinces. The Green March began on 6 November 1975, when King Hassan II called on Moroccans to enter the then Spanish-ruled territory; Morocco says about 350,000 civilians took part.
The three lenses
- WestHow the West reads it In the West, the story is told as a great-power deadlock that killed a mission.
- EastHow the East reads it In the East, the story is reported as logistics and risk.
- Global SouthHow the Global South reads it In the Global South, the story arrives as a turning point claimed by Rabat and contested by its rivals.
Key facts
- Morocco marked the 51st anniversary of the Green March on Friday 6 November 2026, with commemorations in Laayoune, the largest city in the Moroccan Southern Provinces. Associated Press
- The Green March began on 6 November 1975, when King Hassan II called on Moroccans to enter the then Spanish-ruled territory; Morocco says about 350,000 civilians took part. Associated Press
- The UN Security Council failed on 30 October 2026 to renew the mandate of MINURSO, the mission created in 1991; the mandate expired on 31 October and the mission entered liquidation on 1 November. Reuters
- Russia vetoed a US draft resolution that won 11 votes in favour; a rival Russian draft won only three votes in favour, with the United States against and 11 abstentions, and failed. Reuters
- UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said on 4 November that the withdrawal could take about two months, with no alternative verification mechanism in place. Associated Press
- On 4 November, King Mohammed VI chaired a working meeting at the Royal Palace in Rabat on the implications of the new situation, and the Royal Cabinet reaffirmed Morocco’s commitment to the ceasefire. Walaw
What did the 51st anniversary look like in Laayoune?
Morocco marked the 51st anniversary of the Green March on Friday 6 November 2026, with commemorations in Laayoune, the largest city in the Moroccan Southern Provinces. Moroccan flags flew from public buildings, portraits of King Mohammed VI overlooked roundabouts and squares, and schoolchildren carried flags through streets watched over by uniformed police, according to the Associated Press, whose reporters were in the city. The day recalls 6 November 1975, when the late King Hassan II called on Moroccans to march into the then Spanish-ruled territory, and Morocco says about 350,000 civilians answered the call.
This is the first anniversary since the United Nations mission in the territory lost its mandate. The Security Council failed on 30 October to renew the mandate of MINURSO, the mission created in 1991 to monitor a ceasefire and organise a referendum that never took place. Its mandate expired on 31 October, and the mission entered liquidation on 1 November.
Rabat has pledged that the ceasefire stands and has taken charge of the mission’s withdrawal, as the Royal Cabinet called for mission personnel, vehicles, equipment and symbols to leave within days, while reaffirming the Kingdom’s commitment to the truce.
What do we know about the mission’s final days?
The deadlock came down to two competing drafts. The United States proposed extending the mission for a year while renaming it and making Morocco’s autonomy plan the sole basis for talks; it won 11 votes in favour but was vetoed by Russia, with China, Pakistan and Somalia abstaining. Moscow then tabled a plain one-year renewal that won only three votes in favour, from Russia, China and Somalia, with the United States against and 11 abstentions, short of the nine needed for adoption.
The mission’s end was prepared a year earlier. Resolution 2797, adopted on 31 October 2025, extended the mandate to 31 October 2026 and described Morocco’s autonomy proposal as the most feasible solution to the dispute. The United Nations says the mission entered its liquidation phase on 1 November, with equipment to be returned to the countries that contributed it.
On 4 November, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said the withdrawal could take about two months, covering the repatriation of some 160 military observers, the drawdown of 180 civilians and the closure of about 13 facilities. He confirmed that no alternative verification mechanism was in place. The same day, King Mohammed VI chaired a working meeting at the Royal Palace in Rabat on the implications of the new situation, days after Parliament declared a new phase for the file.
What remains unknown about the withdrawal?
No confirmed timetable exists for the physical departure of the mission. Lacroix put the withdrawal at about two months but cautioned that the estimate was not definitive, and the fate of equipment left behind has not been settled. The United Nations has not said when the last personnel will leave Laayoune, or how the handover of the mission’s headquarters and team sites will be sequenced.
Nor is it clear what, if anything, will watch the ceasefire once the observers go. The truce has held in form since 1991, but hostilities resumed in 2020, and the region remains marked by low-intensity confrontation. The Secretary-General’s personal envoy, Staffan de Mistura, continues his political mission, but he commands no force, and no Council member has yet proposed a replacement monitoring arrangement.
A third open question is what the General Assembly will do when it meets on 10 November to discuss the vote. Morocco has asked for the file to leave the Council’s agenda; Algeria and the Polisario Front intend to press the case for self-determination before the full membership. Whether that debate produces anything more than speeches is unknown.
Why does this anniversary fall in a different diplomatic era?
For 35 years, MINURSO was the international frame around the dispute: a mission whose name promised a referendum, even as the vote receded year after year. Its end removes that frame. The 2025 resolution had already moved the Council’s language toward autonomy as the most feasible path; the failed American draft would have gone further, stripping the word referendum from the mission’s name altogether.
The anniversary therefore carries two meanings at once. At home, it is a national commemoration of unity, observed this year alongside the first Unity Day on 31 October, a new commemoration created after Resolution 2797. Abroad, it marks the moment the dispute enters a phase with no UN peacekeepers watching the ceasefire, a change the Secretary-General has warned could bring escalation.
The stakes reach beyond the territory. The Southern Provinces hold rich fisheries and phosphate deposits, and France has backed their ports with 100 million euros of development financing, a sign of how far the economic integration of the region has already advanced.
How did a deadlocked Council reshape a 51-year-old dispute?
The Council did not vote to end the mission. It failed to vote to continue it. The American draft and the Russian draft cancelled each other out: Moscow vetoed a text that would have entrenched autonomy as the sole basis for talks, and Washington voted against a text that would have preserved the mission unchanged. Eleven members abstained on the Russian draft, leaving it far short of the nine votes it needed, and the mandate simply lapsed at midnight on 31 October.
That arithmetic reveals how isolated each camp had become. The American draft won 11 votes, including those of France and the United Kingdom, but a single veto was enough to kill it. The Russian draft could not even hold the members who had backed the American text. The mission, designed for a referendum that no side still believed could be held, had no constituency willing to save it in its old form.
Rabat read the lapse as the validation of a long strategy, and the Royal Cabinet called it a major step toward closing the file. Algiers and the Polisario Front read it as a dangerous gap. Both readings describe the same fact: the United Nations framework that managed the dispute for 35 years is gone, and nothing agreed has yet replaced it.
What changes now that the blue helmets are leaving?
The first change is the loss of neutral eyes on the ceasefire. The UN peacekeeping chief has warned of a security vacuum, and aid organisations have warned that losing the mission’s monitoring and de-escalation work risks undermining stability. The ceasefire has no referee now, and the first test will be whether the parties keep their distance east of the berm without observers in between.
The second change is diplomatic. The file moves from the Security Council, where it lived for 35 years, to the General Assembly, where Morocco will argue that the question should leave the Council’s agenda while Algeria and the Polisario Front argue for self-determination. The Assembly can debate, but it cannot renew a mandate, and its session on 10 November will show whether the wider membership wants a role or is content to watch.
The third change is the one other missions are watching. The same Council dynamics that ended MINURSO are at work in Lebanon, where the peacekeeping chief issued the same warning in the same week. The region’s capitals are still answering why Rabat is celebrating the fall of a 35-year UN mission, and their answers will shape what replaces the mission, if anything does.
What should we watch for in the coming days?
The first marker is the General Assembly session on 10 November, where Algeria and the Polisario Front will make their case for self-determination before the full membership. The second is the pace of the physical withdrawal from Laayoune, measured against the peacekeeping chief’s estimate of about two months, and whether the handover of facilities proceeds without incident.
The third is the envoy. Staffan de Mistura, the Secretary-General’s personal envoy, carries the political process forward without a mission behind him, and his next moves will show whether a negotiation track survives the end of the peacekeeping one. The UN has begun dismantling MINURSO, and the terms agreed in the withdrawal talks in Rabat will set the pattern for the weeks ahead.
The fourth is the anniversary itself, and what follows it: whether the Palace issues further guidance on the post-mission phase, and whether the calm in Laayoune holds as the blue helmets pack up and leave.
The three lenses
West Lens:
How the West reads it In the West, the story is told as a great-power deadlock that killed a mission. The Associated Press and Reuters lead with the vote arithmetic: an American draft with 11 votes in favour, a Russian veto, a rival Russian draft with three votes, and a mandate that expired because no one could assemble nine votes for anything. The anniversary in Laayoune is the backdrop; the Council chamber in New York is the stage.
East Lens:
How the East reads it In the East, the story is reported as logistics and risk. The Manila Times and The Straits Times lead with the peacekeeping chief’s warning of a security vacuum and the numbers of the withdrawal: about 160 military observers to be repatriated, 180 civilians to be drawn down, some 13 facilities to be closed, over about two months. The Eastern lens is practical rather than ideological: a mission ending, a vacuum opening, and the same warning issued for Lebanon in the same week.
South Lens:
How the Global South reads it In the Global South, the story arrives as a turning point claimed by Rabat and contested by its rivals. Al Jazeera explains why Morocco is celebrating: a 35-year chapter closed, the referendum removed from the institutional landscape, and the autonomy plan now the only framework the Council has endorsed. The Moroccan press reports the Royal Cabinet’s call for a swift departure of mission personnel and the King’s working meeting in Rabat.
The consensus
- What we agree on
- What we agree on: Morocco marked the 51st anniversary of the Green March in Laayoune on 6 November 2026; the UN Security Council failed on 30 October to renew MINURSO’s mandate, which expired on 31 October after 35 years; the mission entered liquidation on 1 November; and the Green March began on 6 November 1975, when King Hassan II called on Moroccans to march into the then Spanish-ruled territory, with Morocco saying about 350,000 civilians took part.
- What we don't agree on
- What we disagree on: whether the end of the mission closes the file or leaves a dangerous gap. Morocco and its supporters read the lapse as the validation of the autonomy plan and a step toward a definitive settlement; the Polisario Front, Algeria and aid organisations read it as the loss of the ceasefire’s only neutral monitor, and warn of escalation. The Council’s own members could not agree either: the American draft won 11 votes and was vetoed, while the Russian draft won three.
- What we know
- What we know: the vote tallies on both drafts; the mandate’s expiry at midnight on 31 October; the liquidation timetable described by the UN peacekeeping chief, including about 160 military observers, 180 civilians and some 13 facilities over about two months; the King’s working meeting in Rabat on 4 November; the Royal Cabinet’s call for the mission’s swift departure; and Morocco’s renewed pledge to respect the ceasefire.
- What we don't know yet
- What we don’t know: when the last UN personnel will leave Laayoune; what will happen to the mission’s equipment; what, if anything, will monitor the ceasefire once the observers go; what the General Assembly will decide when it meets on 10 November; and whether the end of monitoring changes behaviour in the territory east of the berm.
- What we expect
- What we expect: a two-month withdrawal, watched closely in Laayoune; a General Assembly debate on 10 November in which Algeria and the Polisario Front press the case for self-determination; continued political efforts through the Secretary-General’s personal envoy, Staffan de Mistura; and further guidance from Rabat on the post-mission phase, as Morocco presses the autonomy plan as the basis for any future talks.
Questions, answered
What was the Green March?
The Green March was the peaceful mobilisation of 6 November 1975, when the late King Hassan II called on Moroccans to march into the then Spanish-ruled territory in the Moroccan Sahara. Morocco says about 350,000 unarmed civilians answered the call, carrying flags, Qur’ans and portraits of the King. Spain withdrew the following year, and the march is commemorated every 6 November as a national day of unity.
Why did the UN mission in the Moroccan Sahara end?
The Security Council failed on 30 October 2026 to agree on renewing the mandate of MINURSO, the mission created in 1991 to monitor a ceasefire and organise a referendum that never took place. Russia vetoed an American draft that had won 11 votes, and a rival Russian draft won only three votes, short of the nine needed. The mandate expired at midnight on 31 October.
What happens to the ceasefire now that the observers are leaving?
Morocco has reaffirmed its commitment to the ceasefire, and the Royal Cabinet has said the end of the mandate does not affect that pledge. But no UN mechanism will monitor the truce once the observers leave, and the UN peacekeeping chief has warned of a security vacuum. The withdrawal is expected to take about two months, with no replacement verification system in place.
What comes next at the United Nations?
The General Assembly is due to meet on 10 November to discuss the Council vote, giving Algeria and the Polisario Front a chance to press the case for self-determination before the full membership. The Secretary-General’s personal envoy, Staffan de Mistura, continues his political efforts, while Morocco has asked for the file to leave the Security Council’s agenda altogether.
Sources
- Associated Press
- Reuters
- Walaw