Abuja (Nigeria) 30 October 2013 (SPS) -An African committee for coordinating solidarity of African civil society with Western Sahara was created Wednesday in Ajuba (Nigeria), following the African Conference of solidarity with the struggle of the Saharawi people
The "Task Force" includes a core of six countries, namely South Africa, Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, the "Abuja Statement," said.
According to the statement, the Secretariat of the Committee shall sit in Nigeria which will preside until the next conference to be held in 2014 in Benin, the member country representing West Africa within the "Task Force."
"The Task Force is responsible for coordinating the activities of the African Movement of Solidarity with the independence of Western Sahara," it said, indicating that among the goals of this Movement, launched on the same occasion, it s 'is to promote the cause of Sahrawis for independence in collaboration with all movements of solidarity in Europe, the Americas (North and South) and in Australia.
The Committee will hold its first meeting on the sidelines of the Fourth International Conference on the Right of Peoples to Resistance, which is the case of Western Sahara, scheduled in Algiers on December 14-15, 2013, President of the Algerian National Committee to Support the Saharawi People (CNASPS) Mahrez Lamari said during the conference.
In addition, the "Abuja Statement" called the African Union (AU) to "impose economic, military, and diplomatic sanctions against Morocco as those taken against the apartheid system in South Africa."
The participants at the Abuja meeting "insistently" requested the Security Council of the UN to extend the mandate of MINURSO for the monitoring and protection of human rights in Western Sahara occupied by Morocco.
They also asked to ensure the organization of referendum of self-determination of the Saharawi people as stipulated in various UN resolutions. (SPS)
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