Morocco Withdraws from TICAD Meeting in Protest over Polisario Presence

The Moroccan delegation taking part at the preparatory meeting of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) has left the event in protest over the presence of Polisario members.

Representatives of the Algerian backed separatist SADR entity managed to intrude into the meeting, which they have not been invited to. They used Algerian passports and were accredited using the badges of the African Union, a source told the Moroccan news agency.

Japan has reaffirmed that it does not recognize the Polisario imaginary state after such an intrusion that brings to memory the chaos caused by Polisario members and their supporters last year at the TICAD conference in Mozambique.

However, a well informed source said that Morocco has expressed its disappointment to Japan which failed to avert such an intrusion into the meeting by Polisario members.

The source said that Japan gave guarantees to Morocco at a meeting on the sidelines of the 73rd UN General Assembly that the separatist group has not been invited to the event.

Japan made it clear that the Polisario cannot participate as a state in TICAD.

Last year in Maputo, the TICAD follow-up meeting was disrupted due to an attempt by Mozambique authorities, under orders from Algeria, to impose the participation of the Polisario.