Ghana starts countdown for Polisario’s membership within African Union

Ghana has cut ties with the Polisario’s self-proclaimed SADR entity, showing that the days of the Algerian proxy separatist entity are numbered within the African Union.

Ghana has informed the Moroccan foreign ministry that it no longer recognizes the Algeria-based SADR entity, ending about five decades of ties.

The decision marks a breakthrough for Morocco in English-speaking African countries, where some have backed the Polisario in a Cold War context, under the influence of Algeria’s gas and oil mantra.

Ghana has joined the majority of African states that back Morocco’s efforts to settle the conflict on the basis of the autonomy plan. At least 40% African countries fully back Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara territory, where they opened consulates in the key cities of Laayoune and Dakhla.

Since 2000, 13 African states withdrew recognition of the self-proclaimed SADR.

With the return of Morocco to the African Union in 2017, the continental organization adopted a neutral stance on the issue, recognizing that the UN is the only framework to settle the conflict.

Since then, calls mounted demanding the expulsion of Polisario separatist from the African Union. Such a membership violates articles 3(b) and 4(b) of the Constitutive Act of the organization.

The salient argument was that the Polisario lacks all state attributes, such as territory, government and institutions as it continues to stand as an armed separatist organization fed and hosted on the Algerian territory.

The SADR membership has often impeded the African Union’s international partnerships. Global powers such as the US, Russia, China, South Korea, Japan, and Saudi Arabia have never invited the Polisario to their African summits, despite pressure from Algeria and South Africa as well as the failed states that turn in their orbit.

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 to restore its territorial integrity and unity after being divided by two colonial powers.