Saharan activist leaves Spain for home after month-long hunger strike

A Western Sahara activist ended his month-long hunger strike in Spain and flew home on Thursday, Xinhua reported.
Aminatou Haidar, 42, accompanied by a doctor and her sister, left Spain's Lanzarote airport at night where she had been consuming only sugared water for 32 days after being denied entry to Western Sahara by Morocco.
"This is a triumph and a victory of the international right, of the human rights and of the Saharan cause," Haider told local media before boarding a plane.
In the early hours of Thursday, Haider was taken to hospital after suffering severe stomach pains caused by constant vomiting and nausea.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the return of Haider during his meeting with Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri. He has also met with Moratinos and said a solution needed to be found with the "utmost urgency."
Moroccan authorities allegedly confiscated Haider's passport and sent her back to Lanzarote in Spain's Canary Islands last month, because the activist, demanding the independence for Western Sahara, registered his nationality as "Sahara" at the airport in Laayoune.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said he had been warned beforehand that Morocco was about to expel the pro-Saharan activist.
The territory of Western Sahara is the subject of a long-running dispute between Morocco and Spain. Morocco took control of the coastal region after the end of Spanish colonialism in 1975. With the support of Algeria, ethnic Saharans fought for independence. While a 1991 cease-fire ended the war, the political dispute continues.
A UN mission in Western Sahara, known as MINURSO, is entrusted with monitoring the cease-fire agreement and organizing a referendum based on self-determination.