THE UN security council will urge Morocco and the Polisario Front to return to peace talks to end the Western Sahara conflict this week.

It is expected that a draft resolution will call for the resumption of negotiations ahead of today’s vote on extending the UN mission observing a fragile ceasefire in the region.

The mission, known as Minurso, has seen UN peacekeepers monitoring Western Sahara come under fire from the Algerian-backed Polisario Front which has been engaged in a decades-long struggle for independence from Morocco.