Shaheed El Hafed (Refugee Camps), 24 February 2025 (SPS) – Starting tomorrow, Tuesday, more than 300 runners representing 31 countries will participate in the 25th edition of the international event Sahara Marathon. The event is attended by a large number of international solidarity activists who have come to join the Sahrawi people in commemorating the 49th anniversary of the proclamation of its republic, which falls on February 27 each year.
According to Hassanieto Mohamed Ashbalel, a member of the National Secretariat of the Polisario Front and the Sahrawi Minister of Youth and Sports, the organization of the Sahara Marathon is "a reinforcement of the solidarity dimension that the Sahrawi cause enjoys through sports." He added that the event is "an opportunity to strengthen Sahrawi sports by assessing the readiness of Sahrawi runners and their ability to participate and excel in international competitions, as well as gaining experience in managing international sports events in cooperation with foreign partners."
The Sahrawi Minister indicated that the Sahara Marathon sports event allows for the discovery of Sahrawi talents both within and outside the camps to participate in continental and international competitions. In this edition, which has been given the slogan "A Quarter Century of Solidarity Through the Voice of Sports from the Gateway of the Sahara Marathon," participants will choose between four distances: 42 km between El Aaiun and Smara, 21 km between Auserd and Smara, 10 km in Smara, and 5 km also in Smara, in addition to a special race for children.
Since 2001, the Sahara Marathon has been organized annually in the Sahrawi refugee camps, following the Moroccan regime's outright refusal to hold a self-determination referendum. The event aims to raise awareness in the international community about the humanitarian, social, and political situation of the Sahrawi people, who suffer from injustice, oppression, and forced displacement from their homeland, whether in the camps, in the Sahrawi territories, or in exile due to the Moroccan invasion and occupation of its land and the denial of its right to freedom and self-determination.
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