Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), 5 March 2016 (SPS) - A delegation of the African Union Commission (AUC) and some members States as well as international dignitaries brought their support and expressed their solidarity to the people of Western Sahara at the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the proclamation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
“It is a clear and unequivocal message: Africa will not be free until the last of its colonies, Western Sahara, is released, free and independent,” said the AU Commission in a communiqué.
AU Commissioner for Social Affairs, Mustapha Sidiki Kaloko reassured the Sahrawi people that “Africa will always be by their side until victory.”
He reiterated the decisions of the 25th and 26th conference of the AU Head of States and Governments urging the United Nations to “set a date for the holding of the referendum on self-determination of the people of Western Sahara and to protect the integrity of Western Sahara as a non-autonomous territory, of any act likely to shaken it.”
For her part, the president of the AU Commission Dlamini Zuma said that the “referendum in Western Sahara is a promise made to you by Africa and the international community.”
“We will make every effort to make it happen,” she added.
In this regard, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon is expected, Saturday, in the Sahrawi refugee camps as part of a tour to the region in which he will meet with senior Sahrawi officials, the United Nations staff working in the region as well as the team of the UN mission for the referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). (SPS)
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