Senegal, latest African country to open a consulate in Dakhla

Senegal has joined the club of African countries that have taken their recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara to a tangible consular level by opening a general consulate in Dakhla this Monday.

 

The move by Senegal in support of Morocco’s territorial integrity has a heavy weight on the continent and sends a strong message that will reverberate across Africa in favor of Morocco’s legitimate right in the Sahara and adds another nail to Algerian stand in support of separatism.

 

The diplomatic representation was inaugurated by Senegal’s Foreign Minister Aïssata Tall Sall and her Moroccan peer Nasser Bourita.

 

Senegal, one of Morocco’s longstanding friends and allies, has a large community in the Moroccan southern regions, and for the first time in 2019, it had opened voting stations for its nationals in the Moroccan Sahara during the Senegalese presidential elections..

 

Morocco and Senegal have so strong historical ties that King Muhammad VI had chosen, in a precedent of its kind, to address the speech of the forty-first anniversary of the Green March from the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

 

In this historic speech, King Mohammed VI had said that Senegal was among the countries that participated in the national epic of the Green March, along with other African and Arab countries, praising Senegal’s presence always at the forefront of defending the kingdom’s territorial integrity and its supreme interests.

 

Morocco has been scoring major points as it defends its territorial integrity notably after the US proclamation of its recognition of the Kingdom’s sovereignty over the southern provinces and its plan to open a consulate in Dakhla.

 

Over 20 countries from Africa and the Arab world have opened consulates in Dakhla and Laayoune as an increasing number of countries plan to follow suit.

 

The Gambia, Guinea, Djibouti, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo have thus opened consulates in Dakhla, while the Union of the Comoros, Gabon, the Central African Republic, Sao Tome and Principe, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Eswatini, Zambia and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Jordan have set up diplomatic representations in Laayoune.