Polisario impedes African Union’s international partnerships

The African Union’s quest to assert itself in global arenas as a partner to regional institutions and global powers is undermined by the presence of a separatist proxy that lacks all the attributes of a sovereign state.

In less than a week, two major partnership events were put off sine die to avoid the probability of the Polisario’s intrusion. First Saudi Arabia had to cancel its summit with the African Union, followed by a similar decision from the EU.

The EU had previously let the Polisario attend its meetings due to the institutional character of its ties with the African Union. Global powers, such as France, the US, China, Japan and South Korea, reject Polisario’s presence in their African summits.

The African Union sapped its potential as a result of Polisario’s membership in its ranks. Saudi Arabia had to relabel its event from the Arab-African summit to Saudi-African summit bringing together heads of states from Nigeria, Senegal, Guinea, Gabon, Mauritius and the Comors.

Prince Bin Salman made a clear reference to Africa’s 54 states instead of 55 as per African Union membership which include the Algeria-based Polisario militias.

Even Russia, Algeria’s arm provider, refused to invite the Polisario to its African summit last July.

Even within the African Union, voices are raising demanding an ejection of the Polisario entity. So far 37 African states, demand back Morocco’s autonomy plan for the Sahara territory where 40% of African states have already opened consulates.

The African Union admitted in the 1980s the Polisario, an entity lacking all the attributes of a state, within a context marked by ideological fervor that is now anachronistic.

The membership of the Polisario within the African Union also stands as an aberration that prejudged the outcome of negotiations in total disregard for the UN process and for Morocco’s historical rights as a country that was divided by two colonial powers.