For Ireland, Dakhla is «not a part of Morocco»
Plus the UN vote, the Polisario letter to the Security Council, the sentencing of Mustapha Dihani, AFAPREDESA's alarm and the students on trial in Rabat.
Good morning,
this is KHAIMA Reports, the independent newsletter from our newsroom: every ten days, the news from the hidden world of Western Sahara and the Global South.
These past days Western Sahara spoke in three languages. The language of advertising, in Dublin. The language of diplomacy, in New York. The language of the courts, in Rabat.
Here is what happened, one story at a time.
Ryanair sold Dakhla as a «Moroccan adventure». An Irish watchdog says no
March 2026. Ryanair sends its customers a promotional email about Dakhla and sells it as a «Moroccan adventure»: a place «where ocean, desert, and culture come together», where you can surf and «explore Moroccan culture up close». The airline has flown to Dakhla since early 2025.
But Dakhla is not in Morocco. It is in Western Sahara, occupied by Morocco since the mid-1970s, which the UN regards as a non-self-governing territory awaiting decolonisation. Lynn Boylan, an Irish Sinn Féin MEP, files a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority, the body that regulates advertising in Ireland. «This advert erases indigenous people by showing the city as belonging to Morocco», her office writes.
On 12 October the authority issues its draft decision, seen by the Irish Times. The advert is likely to mislead the public, because Dakhla is «not a part of Morocco». The authority recommends that its independent council uphold the MEP's complaint and direct that the advert not appear again in its current form.
It is not yet final: the council has the last word. Ryanair, in its submissions, says it meant to give an overview of the destination «without expressing any political stance».
For Hugh Lovatt, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, Morocco commonly uses tourism and trade to «force international recognition» of its claim. Including Western Sahara, he tells the Irish Times, is «the price of doing business with Morocco».
«Not a part of Morocco»Advertising Standards Authority, draft decision of 12 October
Why it matters Three days after the draft decision, at the UN, the Fourth Committee confirmed with 152 votes in favour that Western Sahara remains a territory to be decolonised. What is decided in New York sometimes reaches all the way to the inbox of someone booking a flight.
152 votes for self-determination. For the SADR it is «a victory for international legality»
On Thursday 15 October, in New York, the UN Fourth Committee approves its annual text on Western Sahara: 152 in favour, 2 against, the United States and Israel, and 7 abstentions. The text reaffirms the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination. Since 2006 it has usually passed without a vote; this year the United States asked for a vote on all of the Committee's texts.
Two days later comes the comment of Malainin Lakhal, deputy permanent representative of the Sahrawi Republic (SADR) to the African Union. He calls it «a resounding diplomatic and political victory for international legality». The vote, he says, confirms that Western Sahara «was and remains a question of decolonisation» and shows «the isolated position of the occupier».
Lakhal looks above all to the Security Council, which decides on MINURSO at the end of the month. In his view the text recalls that the mission was created «to organise a self-determination referendum, not to manage the status quo», and puts the Council before its legal responsibilities.
Among the 152 votes in favour, according to the Moroccan daily Assahafa, is Morocco's own.
Why it matters Thursday's was a committee vote: the final step belongs to the General Assembly, usually in December. But it lands on the Security Council's table two weeks before the vote on MINURSO.
Polisario writes to the Security Council. And asks Morocco three questions
On 19 October Sidi Mohamed Omar, the Polisario Front's representative to the UN, writes to Greek Ambassador Aglaia Balta, who holds the Security Council presidency this month. In the letter, which we have read in Arabic and English, he answers the speech by Morocco's representative to the Fourth Committee, which in his view distorted the facts to mislead member states.
The starting point is resolution 2797, adopted by the Council in 2025. Despite its «destructive ambiguities», Omar writes, the text sets out three principles: any solution must respect the UN Charter, including the right to self-determination; it must be acceptable to both parties, Polisario and Morocco; and it must allow the people of Western Sahara to exercise that right. On that basis, he recalls, Polisario took part in the three informal ministerial meetings led by the UN and the United States earlier this year, bringing its own proposals.
Then come the questions. Morocco argues that decolonisation was settled «half a century ago», with the Green March, which the letter calls the «Black March», and the 1975 Madrid Accords. If so, Omar asks, why did the General Assembly in 1979 and 1980 (resolutions 34/37 and 35/19) deplore Morocco's «continued occupation»? Why does the General Assembly treat Western Sahara as a decolonisation question, while the Security Council treats it as a matter of peace and security? And why did Morocco, just days ago, vote for the text asking the UN decolonisation committee to keep the issue on its agenda?
The letter also cites the International Court of Justice's opinion of 16 October 1975: no tie of territorial sovereignty between Western Sahara and Morocco, and full application of the right to self-determination. Finally, the refugees: Morocco speaks of «durable solutions» for the Sahrawis in the camps in Algeria. For Omar they became refugees because of the 1975 invasion, and the only durable solution is an end to the occupation.
Why it matters On 31 October the Security Council votes on renewing MINURSO, the UN mission in the territory. Every letter reaching its table these days is an attempt to weigh on that vote.
Mustapha Dihani sentenced to seven years in prison. Amnesty says the charges are unfounded
A necessary disclosure: Mustapha Dihani is the brother of Mohamed Dihani, founder of KHAIMA Reports. That is why here we report only what Amnesty International and the press have documented.
Mustapha leaves Western Sahara in September 2023. A web developer, he founded Wesatimes, a site covering the territory's politics, Sahrawi rights and civil society. On 30 October 2023, according to Amnesty International, he is arrested in Somaliland after crossing the border from Ethiopia. He is released on 6 October 2025 with a presidential pardon.
While travelling to a third country he is stopped during a layover at Dubai airport and, on 21 October 2025, forcibly returned to Morocco. He ends up in Salé 2 prison. The charges: membership of a criminal gang and terrorism offences. Amnesty says they are unfounded. The indictment, the organisation explains, rests solely on his confessions; before the investigating judge he rejected every charge and reported threats and ill-treatment in custody. Since then, again according to Amnesty, he has been held in prolonged solitary confinement.
On 16 October 2026 the sentence comes: seven years in prison and a fine of about 47,000 euros. Mustapha has appealed.
Amnesty is calling for his immediate release, an investigation into the ill-treatment and an end to his solitary confinement.
AFAPREDESA warns of «unprecedented» violence against Sahrawi civilians and prisoners
On Thursday 15 October Abdeslam Omar Lahcen, president of AFAPREDESA, the association of families of Sahrawi prisoners and the disappeared, raises the alarm. In his view violence by Moroccan forces against civilians in the occupied cities and against political prisoners has risen in a serious and unprecedented way.
His words come in difficult days. The Rabat protest that ended with seven people detained. Claude Mangin turned away on 12 October at Marrakech-Menara airport, according to Front Line Defenders and the Moroccan site Yabiladi, as she tried to visit her husband, Naâma Asfari, a prisoner of the Gdeim Izik group. And the hunger strike by prisoners of the same group.
Rabat: four students on trial after a protest for the Gdeim Izik prisoners
On Monday 12 October, outside the prison administration headquarters in Rabat, relatives of the Gdeim Izik prisoners and their supporters gather. Several of those prisoners have been on hunger strike since 23 September. The police arrive. The gathering is dispersed and seven people are detained.
The accounts differ. According to the prosecution, the gathering was unauthorised and three officers were injured during the intervention. According to the protesters, quoted by the EFE agency, the gathering was peaceful, on the pavement, and it was three of them who were injured.
Three of those detained are released. Four students remain in pre-trial custody: Ibrahim Babit, Salah Eddine Essabbar, El Houcine Cheihab and Mohamed Lemrabet, according to Front Line Defenders and the site Noteolvides del Sahara Occidental. Among the seven detained, according to Front Line Defenders, was also human rights defender Hassana Eddouihi. On 16 October the trial opens before the Rabat court of first instance. They face charges of disobedience, unauthorised assembly, insulting and assaulting public officials. The hearing is postponed to 23 October at the defence's request.
Meanwhile, behind bars, the protest that had brought people onto the street has stopped. According to the League for the Protection of Sahrawi Prisoners, the Gdeim Izik prisoners ended their hunger strike after 23 days, in exchange for a commitment from the prison administration to examine their demands, first among them transfer to prisons near their families.
Six stories from Dublin, New York, Rabat and the camps. Talk again in ten days.
The newsroomKHAIMA Reports
Statements are attributed to whoever made them: when one of the parties speaks, we report its position, not an independent confirmation.