Sahara : Senegal to open a consulate in Dakhla

Senegal is preparing to open a consulate general in Dakhla, Le360 says. The inauguration ceremony is scheduled for Monday, April 5, and will be attended by the Foreign Ministers of the two countries, according to the same source.

Dakar is a traditional ally of Rabat in Africa having given its support to the Moroccan autonomy plan in the Sahara. However, the country has not followed the example of the Kingdom's other partners on the continent, such as Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea and Burkina Faso, which very early on inaugurated consulates in the Sahara. It has stayed away from the process initiated since 2019, while states that had recognized the so-called «Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic» in the past, have opened consular representations, like Zambia.

The opening of the Senegalese consulate sounds, moreover, like a disavowal to the last communiqué of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, of March 18, calling on the Secretary General of the United Nations «to ask the legal adviser of the United Nations to provide legal advice on the opening of consulates in the non-self-governing territory of Western Sahara».