Trade rises as tensions ease on Western Sahara contested road

Trade has picked up on a contested road in Western Sahara on Morocco's border with Mauritania after tensions eased between troops and separatists, officials and truck drivers said Wednesday. Moroccan television said truck drivers were no longer being deterred by the presence of armed Polisario Front separatists who had been patrolling the road.
"Their number has gone down considerably," one driver told a local television station. A border post official, contacted by AFP, said the flow of trucks carrying goods had stepped up. "We were handling an average of about 250 vehicles a day but since Tuesday the number has gone up to more than 350. We're being overwhelmed," he said. Rabat on Sunday announced a troop pullback from the Guerguerat zone along the road, in a decision taken by King Mohamed VI at the request of UN chief Antonio Guterres. The United Nations has also called on the Polisario to evacuate the zone but there has been no such announcement from the Algiers-backed separatists.