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Unsurprisingly, the Algerian president devoted most of his speech to the Western Sahara question, during a Peace and Security Council (PSC) meeting on Tuesday. From the start of his speech, Abdelmadjid Tebboune reminded his peers that «Africa, which has conquered European occupation through its political and armed struggle at times, and has overcome Apartheid, must today put an end to the last colonial remnants».
He claimed that «the failure of the ceasefire, in force since 1991, and the dangerous escalation of the conflict in Western Sahara is only the result of decades of blocking policy and systematic slowing down of settlement plans, hindering the negotiation process and recurring attempts to impose a fait accompli in the territory of a founding member state of the AU».
By the same token, Brahim Ghali reiterated his appeals to the African Union to «assume its responsibility and its duty to face this African issue (…) The AU is not only a partner of the United Nations in the peace process, but rather a body that has worked for many years».
But the Algerian president in his role as a defender of the Polisario found himself somewhat alone. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is chairing the PSC this month, devoted his speech to the impact of climate change on peace and security in Africa. As for the African presidency, it did not mention any speech by Cyril Ramaphosa, while he was among the heads of state present at the PSC meeting.
Morocco did not take part in the meeting
Despite pressure from Algeria, this meeting of the PSC reaffirmed the leadership of the United Nations on this issue. It just called «for immediate ceasefire in the Western Sahara, requested the AU Troika and the AU Special Envoy to reinvigorate support to the UN-led mediation and thus urged the UNSG to expeditiously appoint a Special Envoy to MINURSO to support peace efforts», wrote the body on its Twitter account.
Morocco ignored the invitation addressed to it by the Kenyan president since the Kingdom has always refused to grant a role to the African Union in the process of resolving the conflict. «All those who want to involve the African Union in this file will systematically find the Moroccan diplomacy mobilized so that the African Union is not involved in this file which concerns the United Nations», specified the Minister of Foreign Affairs during a press briefing held on February 7 following the last ordinary AU summit.
For the record, Morocco has always rejected calls to receive the African envoy for Western Sahara, former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, appointed to this post in 2014.
As for the troika, Rabat is waiting for its tour de table «to be balanced», underlined Nasser Bourita with the end of the mandate of South Africa, to include the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Senegal and in 2022 the Comoros Islands.
Three countries that support Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara. Since its formation in 2018, this mechanism has met only once in the Ethiopian capital on the sidelines of the AU Conference of Heads of State in February 2019.
