Nm-Cherry-Blossom

A sealed bid auction to buy the disputed 55,000 tons of Saharan phosphate on board the "NM Cherry Blossom", under arrest in the Port Elizabeth/Ngqura outer anchorage since May 201, started on March 19, 2018, and will run for 30 calendar days. The ship’s cargo was said to have been taken illegally from the disputed Western Sahara, and when the ship called off the Eastern Cape last year while en route to New Zealand, the matter was taken to court by the Polisario Front movement which claims to represent the Western Sahara. In February 2018 the Port Elizabeth High Court granted the sale order.

The "Cherry Blossom", loaded with a cargo of 50,000 tons of phosphate was detained after arriving on the anchorage of Port Elizabeth on May 1, 2017, by the South African authorities, after the Polisario Front claimed that the shipment was illegal. The phosphate shipping from Saharan Upwelling, Laayoune, is one of many disputes between Polisario and Morocco, to which the bulk carrier fell a victim.