After three weeks on hunger strike, doctors say the condition of Western Sahara activist Aminatou Haidar is critical. Ms Haidar, an award-winning activist, has only drunk sugared water since 16 November, just days after the Moroccan authorities denied her entry to her native Western Sahara.

Doctors say she is in critical condition: "Her time is coming to an end. We're not talking in terms of weeks but in hours or days". However, the 43-year-old mother of two said she has no intention of giving up, "I will continue with my hunger strike until there is a solution".
 

The activist was returning to Western Sahara after a trip to New York but was refused entry by the Moroccan authorities; her passport was confiscated and she was deported to the Canary Islands. Madrid has offered her refugee status or Spanish citizenship but she refused saying she did not want to become "a foreigner in her own homeland". Madrid has appealed to UN Secretary-General Ben Ki Moon to help resolve the crisis.

A spokesperson for her activist group said Ms Haidar's hunger strike is also an appeal to the international community to protect her family in Western Sahara. Spanish journalists say they saw Moroccan police officers prevent her sons entering the family home.

Morocco annexed most of Western Sahara in 1975 after Spain withdrew from the phosphate-rich territory, but the move sparked a war with the Polisario Front. A ceasefire was agreed in 1991 but UN-sponsored talks have failed to make progress on Western Sahara's future. Morocco has pledged to grant the territory widespread autonomy but refuses to countenance independence. The Polisario Front has warned that it will adopt a "more radical position" in its campaign for independence if Ms Haidar is allowed to die.