Washington, Nov 6, 2013 (SPS) - The US newspaper Huffington Post advocated the right to self-determination in Western Sahara and stressed that Morocco is “illegally occupying” the Sahrawi territories.
“The last colony in Africa : The forgotten state ’’ is the title of an article published Tuesday by Huffington Post which emphasized on need for a mechanism for monitoring human rights in the region.
“This state is called the Western Sahara and its inhabitants are called Saharawi people,” the newspaper stated.
In a historical overview, Huffington Post stressed that in the mid-20th century, many African countries gained independence from colonial powers and now ’’all African states are considered sovereign except one, the Western Sahara.”
Unlike most African states that enjoyed right to self-determination before colonial powers withdrew, Western Sahara was immediately and unduly claimed by its neighbours, Morocco and Mauritania after Spain withdrew as it was the country’s colonizing power at that time.
“Instead of granting independence to Sahrawi people, Spain inked an agreement with Morocco and Mauritania through which split the Saharawi territories between these two neighbouring countries”, the newspaper recalled. (SPS)
090/089/700