Morocco says wall at centre of Western Sahara troubles is completed

Morocco has completed the construction of a sand barrier in UN-monitored zone in Western Sahara, Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani told Reuters on Tuesday.

Otmani's announcement followed the separatist Polisario Front's withdrawal from a 29-year ceasefire with Morocco.

The separatists withdrew from the decades long truce after Moroccan troops entered the buffer zone on Friday to open a Western Sahara-Mauritania road blocked by Polisario fighters.

The Algerian-backed Polisario armed group does not recognise the existence of the highway.

Morocco, however, has insisted that it is maintaining the ceasefire.

Speaking to Reuters, Othmani said there had only been "skirmishes and sporadic fighting" in recent days.

"Up to now, there is nothing to worry about along the security wall and in the Moroccan Sahara in general," he said.

In recent days, the Polisario has bombarded Moroccan positions along the sand bank, which was constructed in the 1980s.

The wall has now been extended to the Mauritanian border "with the goal of securing once and for all civilian and commercial traffic in Guerguerat between Morocco and Mauritania", Othmani told Reuters.