Niamey (Niger)m July 6, 2019 (SPS) - A meeting on Western Sahara is scheduled in Niamey with a view to boosting direct negotiations between Morocco and the Polisario Front, and organizing a self-determination referendum, the AU Peace and Security Commissioner, Smail Chergui has said Thursday.
The meeting will be held on the sidelines of the 12th AU Extraordinary Summit, scheduled for 7 July in Niamey. It will bring together the troika made up of Rwanda, which had previously assumed the turning presidency of the AU, Egypt as current chairperson of the AU and South Africa, which will soon assume the presidency.
In a statement to the press of the 35th AU Extraordinary Council, Chergui said that the troika meeting came after the decision taken at the Nouakchott Summit to support the United Nations Envoy for Western Sahara and boost direct negotiations between Morocco and the Polisario Front.
The Conference of Heads of State and Government, held in July 2018 in Nouakchott, adopted the mechanism enabling the AU to “effectively support” the UN-led process based on the Security Council’s relevant resolutions, which aim at ensuring the self-determination of Western Sahara.
This mechanism was adopted after a report drafted by Chairman of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki, who recalled that Western Sahara and Morocco must resume negotiations under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General.
The negotiations "must take place without preconditions and in good faith with a view to achieving a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution that will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara under arrangements consistent with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.” (SPS)
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