Algiers, 16 February 2024 (SPS) - The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohamed Sidati expressed the wish that the African Union (AU), the first defender of the cause of the Sahrawi people, contributes fully to the settlement of the Sahrawi issue under its Constitutive Act.
In an interview granted to APS on the eve of the 37th African Union Summit, scheduled to start on February 17 in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), the Minister of Foreign Affairs indicated that "faced with the status quo that the Sahrawi question is currently experiencing, our hopes rest on the forthcoming African Summit, as the Sahrawi people hope that the AU will fully play its role in the decolonization of Western Sahara, the last colony in Africa, and enable it to exercise its right to self-determination.”
Referring to the latest developments in the Sahrawi question in light of the new international situation, before the AU summit, Sidati recalled the role incumbent on Africa, as the "first defender of the cause of the Sahrawi people” in resolving the conflict in Western Sahara, stressing that the Constitutive Act of the AU offered support to the UN for the completion of the decolonization of Western Sahara, the last colony in Africa, within the framework of a serious Africa-UN partnership.
"Multiple crises and challenges dominate the Summit's agenda, including the conflict in Western Sahara,” said Sidati, underlining that the Sahrawi question is gaining in prominence, day by day, among AU member states. This trend has been accentuated in recent years, as evidenced by "the partnership and coordination between the various structures of the continental organization to assert the sovereignty of the Sahrawi people over their territories,” he said.
He also warned against "the nefarious intentions of the Moroccan regime, which tries at every turn to exploit any space at continental or international level to blackmail and buy consciences in order to push through its approaches and bad merchandise,” assuring that "these manoeuvres have been exposed across the African continent".
Referring to the diplomatic momentum of the Sahrawi leadership in line with the national program resulting from the Polisario Front Congress, Sidati affirmed that in recent months, the Sahrawi people have scored several important points on both the continental and international levels, notably with Western Sahara's participation in the BRICS Summit despite Morocco’s manoeuvres to prevent it.
The Sahrawi Foreign Minister also noted that despite the current tensions in the world, the Sahrawi cause continues to arouse international interest, warning against Morocco's pursuit of its policy of headlong rush and its failure to meet its international commitments as part of the strategy of tension advocated by the occupier in the region.
"The continuation of the war in Western Sahara will have unfortunate consequences,” he warned.
The Sahrawi official also affirmed that the Sahrawi leadership was continuing its legal battle in the European courts to put an end to the plundering of the Sahrawi people's natural resources by the Moroccan occupier and certain European countries involved.