Oxfam hailed today’s passing of a law banning metallic mining by the Salvadoran government. The law comes after years of violence and social tensions around mining in the country and strong opposition to mining from more than 77% of the country’s population.
“Oxfam calls for the immediate appointment of a new UN Personal Envoy for Western Sahara to restart the peace process without any further delay. The lack of progress has led to rising frustration within the refugee camps that the Western Sahara crisis is once again being forgotten by the international community, and risks the positive momentum towards a political solution that former Personal Envoy Horst Koehler had begun.”