Abuja - (Nigeria), August 15, 2024 (SPS) - The International Conference for Eradication of Colonialism called on the African Union " to implement the decision of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights on Western Sahara issued in September 2022, which calls on African countries, individually and collectively, to support the Sahrawi people in their just struggle to complete sovereignty over the territory of the Sahrawi Republic, which is subject to military occupation by the Kingdom of Morocco".
The International Conference for Eradication of Colonialism, organized in the capital Abuja on August 12 and 13, recalled in its final statement, the warning of "the African Court to all African countries against taking any step that would negatively affect, in any way, the struggle of the Sahrawi people and their right to freedom and independence".
The conference indicated in its statement that "the continuation of the colonial state in Western Sahara is primarily an African affair, and it is necessary for the African Union to push towards accelerating the process of decolonization in Western Sahara and to effectively accompany the Sahrawi people, as approved by the history and traditions of Africa in liberation solidarity."
The conference stressed that “Resolution 1514 - 1960” of the United Nations General Assembly and the original settlement plan signed between the two parties to the conflict remain the only reference for completing the decolonization through the current UN process and “that any attempt to bypass this or circumvent the will of the Sahrawi people is rejected and will fail.”
The participants also insisted, through the final statement and their interventions, on “the urgent need to find an impartial international mechanism to ensure respect for human rights in Western Sahara and to stop the gross human rights violations to which the Sahrawi people are subjected on a daily basis, as well as warning the European Union against continuing to favor the Moroccan occupation and its involvement with it in the plundering of the natural resources of Western Sahara in violation of international and European law.”
At the end of the statement on the last colony in Africa, the participants renewed their unconditional solidarity with the Sahrawi people in their legitimate struggle, under the leadership of their legitimate and sole representative, the Polisario Front, for freedom and independence.
It is worth noting that the International Conference for Eradication of Colonialism organized in Abuja - Nigeria, by the Institute of Society for International Relations Awareness (SIRA), witnessed a distinguished international and Nigerian presence. Its work was chaired by the former Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ibrahim Gambari, and was attended by an important Sahrawi delegation including Mr. Brahim Salem Boussif, Ambassador of the Sahrawi Republic in Nigeria, and Ambassador Oubi Boushraya Al-Bashir, Representative of the Polisario Front in Switzerland, the United Nations and International Organizations in Geneva.
SPS 110