Sky News: Morocco wants to rejoin the African Union (AU), more than three decades after pulling out in protest at the organisation’s decision to accept the disputed territory of Western Sahara as a member.
Formerly known as Spanish Sahara, the mineral-rich former colony on Africa’s northwest coast is bordered by Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania and was claimed by Morocco after Spain relinquished control in 1975.
But the Sahrawis, or “people of the desert”, led by the Algerian-backed Polisario Front, have long campaigned for independence and have applied pressure on Morocco to grant them self-determination.
A national referendum planned for 1991 would have given the population the choice of voting for autonomy or for integration with Morocco, but the move was shelved after both sides failed to agree upon who would be entitled to vote.
Adala UK, a British campaign group fighting on behalf of the Sahrawi people, recently filed a report to the UN highlighting what it claimed was persistent human rights abuses in the region, including violent interventions by Moroccan authorities in peaceful Sahrawi demonstrations.
And earlier this year Morocco expelled several UN staff in retaliation for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s use of the term “occupation” to describe the territory’s status.
But as AU leaders began their 27th summit in Rwanda’s capital Kigali, Morocco’s King Mohammed despatched a message informing them that, although his country left the Union, it did not “quit Africa”.
“Morocco wants to work within the AU to transcend divisions,” he added, while urging the bloc to rethink its position on the “phantom state” of Western Sahara.
“The recognition of a pseudo state is hard for the Moroccan people to accept,” he said, adding that “at least 34 countries” do not recognise the territory and that a political solution to the dispute was being developed under the auspices of the UN.
A vote by AU members would be required before Morocco could return to the AU.
