Algeria and the Polisario denounce the opening of an Ivorian consulate in Laayoune

As usual, Algeria and the Polisario Front have reacted to the opening of an Ivorian consulate in Laayoune. On Tuesday, the Algerian Foreign Ministry said that the decision is «a flagrant transgression of international law» and a «violation of the commitments under the Constitutive Act of the African Union (AU)».

Similarly, the Polisario Front described the opening of a consulate of Cote d’Ivoire in Laayoune as «an act of aggression against the Saharawi people’s sovereignty». «It is a violation of the basic principles and goals of the African Union’s Constitutive Act», the separatist movement said in a press release on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the Ivorian Minister for African Integration and Ivorians Living Abroad, Ally Coulibaly, presided the inauguration of the new consulate. During the event, he said that his country does not «want to be told what to do or not to do».