Authorities could not prevent thousands of Catalans from taking the streets and voicing their choices. Catalan officials said that 90 % of those who voted supported independence in yesterday’s vote. In the Maghreb region, the referendum of Catalonia almost went unnoticed. As Morocco showed support for Madrid, Algiers and the Polisario Front remained silent in an embarrassing way.
Morocco and Mauritania have not been in good terms since the first term of the Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz. This is confirmed through the fact that the neighboring country has not appointed an ambassador in Rabat since the retirement of Mohamed Ould Mouaouia in 2012. With the announcement of the opening of a new border crossing between Algeria and Mauritania, what impact would this have on the Guergarate crisis and the Sahara conflict ? Answers to these questions are provided
Algeria was forced to find another member to defend its positions at the African Union Commission after the departure of its president Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. The president of the Peace and Security Council, Smail Chergui, is expected to assume the role previously played by the South African official. In fact he met last night with Horst Kohler, the new UN personal envoy to Western Sahara.
It has been almost nine months since Donald Trump got elected president of the United States. It has been also nine months since the American Embassy in the Kingdom is waiting for a new Ambassador after the departure of Dwight Bush in January, knowing that Trump has already appointed in June a new ambassador to Algeria.
In Morocco, official media platforms have paid particular attention to the decision taken by the Supreme Court of Kenya that annulled the results of the presidential elections. Details.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Nasser Bourita, said in an interview conducted by «Jeune Afrique», a Magazine based in Paris, that the diplomatic relations between Morocco and Algeria may be at all-time low. For him the exchange of visits between officials from the two countries has been stalled for years.
The number of Moroccans applying for asylum in the Netherlands has dropped dramatically during the first semester of the current year. The information has been released by several Dutch media platforms. To investigate the drop, a monthly report issued by the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice was handed over to Yabiladi by the Dutch Embassy in Morocco to have an overview about asylum-seeking trends in the country.
The Economist has published an analytical article explaining how the Moroccan and Algerian economies have been affected by the ongoing conflict. Bringing back the Maghreb Arab Union, an aborted project initiated in 1989, the British newspaper believes that «fences» are making both the North African Kingdom and republic poorer.