South Sudan Reiterates Support for Morocco’s Territorial Integrity

South Sudan has reiterated its position in support of Morocco’s sovereignty over its southern provinces, the Sahara, dissipating a false hope by Algeria and its proxy the Polisario to see Africa’s youngest nation be deluded to back its separatist thesis.

The South Sudanese position was expressed in a joint statement in Rabat by foreign minister Nhial Deng Nhial who commended Morocco’s autonomy plan as a political solution to the regional dispute over the Sahara.

Nhial who held talks with his Moroccan peer Nasser Bourita also backed the UN process to find a lasting solution to the Sahara issue.

During the visit King Mohammed VI paid to Juba in February 2017, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit put the final nail in the coffin of the Algerian-backed SADR separatist entity by making it clear that there is no parallel between his country’s struggle for independence and the Sahara issue.

“While considering that the issue of the Sahara is different in its genesis, legal and political background from that of South Sudan, President Salva Kiir Mayardit acknowledges the efforts of the United Nations to reach a political solution to the regional dispute over the Sahara. The President welcomes the serious and credible efforts of Morocco,” said a joint statement issued following King Mohammed VI’s two-day visit to South Sudan.

The two heads of state had co-chaired the signing ceremony of bilateral agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoU) in the fields of Agriculture, Energy, Mining and Hydrocarbons, Industry, Investment, Tax Avoidance, Vocational Training and Economic Partnership between the two countries’ business communities.

On the same occasion, an agreement on urban development of South Sudan’s new capital was signed with Morocco contributing $5.1 million to fund the technical and financial feasibility studies of this large-scale project, which offers huge business and job opportunities.

The sovereign had then visited the Moroccan field hospital deployed in Juba in January 2017 and handed Juba’s teaching Hospital medical equipment generously donated by the Mohammed VI Foundation for Sustainable Development.

King Mohammed VI had also handed over items to a number of internally displaced persons.

All these humanitarian gestures are reflective of the King’s care to bring a helping hand to the South Sudanese people.