African states, other countries renew support for Morocco at UN fourth committee
Many African states reaffirmed their support for Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara and lauded the development efforts undertaken by Morocco.
Morocco’s longstanding allies in the continent including Gabon, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and the Republic of Guinea underscore that Morocco’s autonomy initiative is a credible and fair solution to the conflict over the Sahara.
They stressed that settling the Sahara issue would be conducive to peace and security in the Sahel.
“Putting an end to the Sahara issue is essential to the quest for the consolidation of peace and stability throughout the African continent,” Côte d’ivoire’s representative to the UN told the fourth committee.
Echoing him, Gabon’s representative stressed that settling the Sahara dispute would enable better cooperation to address pressing security issues in the Sahel.
“At this critical time when our Sahel region faces several threats and challenges, we are optimistic that such an autonomy initiative could contribute to security and stability in the Sahel region,” Gambia’s ambassador said in the same vein.
Morocco has offered an autonomy initiative granting substantive power to the local population in the Sahara in managing their local affairs within the Kingdom’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The move, hailed as credible and serious on multiple occasions by the international community has fallen on deaf Algerian and polisario ears, which continue to stick to the obsolete referendum option that history has proven it to be unfeasible.
Other countries such as Burkina Faso, Burundi and Salvador welcomed the Geneva talks and called on Algeria and other parties to the conflict to engage in good faith with the UN-led process.
“The Mexican Government reaffirms its support for the ongoing negotiation process to reach a fair, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution to the Sahara issue” in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly, Mexico’s representative said while adopting a neutral stance.
