A mandate that expired on Sunday

MINURSO stopped operating on Sunday 1 November 2026, after the Security Council did not renew the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission that had been in Western Sahara for 35 years. The United Nations is now moving into a wind-down phase rather than a continuation of the force.

Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary general, set out what happens next.

A smaller team reporting to the UN Department of Operational Support will oversee the orderly transportation of troop-contributing countries' assets home and the disposal of UN equipment, Dujarric said.

How the Security Council deadlock unfolded

The mission's end came out of a US-Russia standoff at UN headquarters over the future of the territory.

• •On Friday, Russia vetoed a draft US resolution in the Security Council that would have supported Morocco's demand for sovereignty over Western Sahara and wound up the mission in 2027.
• •A rival Russian resolution to extend the mission was then voted down, leaving the force's mandate to end abruptly.

A mission born with the 1991 cease-fire

MINURSO - the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara - was created after a UN-brokered cease-fire took effect in 1991. The settlement plan envisaged a self-determination referendum with independence among the options, but the vote never happened amid a dispute over voter eligibility, with the Polisario Front insisting on Spain's colonial census to determine who could vote.

The mission's scale and cost over the decades:

• •Authorized strength of 534 personnel, with Egypt, Ghana and Pakistan as its top military contributors.
• •A 2026-2027 budget of more than $62 million.
• •Twenty MINURSO personnel lost their lives during the mission.

The territory and the parties' reactions

Western Sahara is a desert territory roughly the size of Colorado on Africa's northwestern Atlantic coast, rich in minerals and fisheries, once ruled by Spain and claimed by both Morocco and the Polisario Front. The UN classifies it as a non-self-governing territory, and critics of Moroccan control call it Africa's last colony.

The reactions from the parties were diametrically opposed. Morocco's royal palace welcomed the non-renewal, calling the mission an "instrument to internationalize the dispute." The Polisario Front, which is backed by Algeria and seeks an independent Sahrawi Republic, called it "an unacceptable decision." Algeria's foreign ministry voiced deep regret that the mandate was not renewed, and took aim at the US draft resolution over what it described as "excessive bias."

Dujarric said the secretary-general calls on all parties to respect and promote the rights of the people of Western Sahara, and remains concerned about the security situation and the risk of escalation.