Occupied El Aaiun — Moroccan occupation forces have brutally prevented a group of Sahrawi from exerting their right to demonstrate peacefully and celebrate the International Day of Human Rights, perpetuating the crimes against humanity as well as the military blockade and the media blackout imposed on the towns of occupied Western Sahara.

Sahrawi activist and former political prisoner Mahfouda Bamba Lafkir said, in a testimony, that she and a group of Sahrawi demonstrators were violently beaten and prevented from staging a peaceful demonstration commemorating the International Day of Human Rights.

The demonstrators were calling for respect of human rights in the occupied towns and cities of Western Sahara and the lifting of the house arrest imposed on activist Sultana Khaya, in the occupied town of Boujdour.

She also stressed that Moroccan occupation police force used violence against her and other Sahrawi women in the location of the demonstration, and also against Sahrawi activists inside a place of worship.

The Sahrawi activist said several demonstrators were injured, citing a Sahrawi woman, Metou Ali Salem, as the most seriously injured, as she was slapped, beaten and dragged on the street in a brutal and barbaric manner.

Mahfouda Bamba Lafkir has called on the international community to take urgent action to protect Western Sahara people and save them from the brutality of Moroccan occupation.

The Sahrawi activist expressed her determination and that of the other Sahrawi demonstrators to continue their peaceful protests until the victorious return of all Sahrawi refugees to Western Sahara, their homeland.