PUSL.- Africa Day is marked this year under the Covid-19 pandemic, the urgency to silence arms and the inability to decolonize the continent, which continues with Morocco occupying Western Sahara.
Today, the African continent celebrates Africa Day. A sad anniversary due to this continent’s inability to achieve peace and complete decolonization, marked this year by the fight against covid-19 in a region where ivarious infectious diseases have devastated the population year after year
Africa commemorates today the birth of the OAU (Organization of the African Union) in 1963, which later changed its name to African Union. Many hopes have been and are placed on this continent which is extremely rich in resources, be they natural, be they human, but unfortunately also rich in armed conflicts, where economic integration remains far from desired and where the Saharawi people continue to suffer a savage moroccan occupation.
The OAU, advocating a united Africa, free and responsible for its own destiny, was established on May 25, 1963, which would later be declared Africa Day. The birth of this organization took place in May 1963, in a scenario where the struggle for independence from colonial rule was gaining strength. Several leaders of independent African states and representatives of liberation movements met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to form a united front in the struggle for total independence for the continent, the OAU. Thirty-nine years later, in 2002, the OAU was replaced by the African Union, which reaffirmed the goals of “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its citizens and representing a dynamic force on the world stage”. Morocco was not a member of the AU since it withdrew as soon as the Democratic Saharawi Arab Republic joined the OAU. Morocco has only recently returned to the heart of the African Organization, violating the constitutive act from the first second and creating problems as well practicing manipulation and corruption manoeuvres.
This year, fifty-seven years later, and due to the covid-19 pandemic, Africa Day will be marked with a series of online initiatives, promoted by the African Union, a day of events, to be transmitted by the main digital platforms, having as a highlight a ceremony with speeches by the South African head of state and acting president of the organization, Cyril Ramaphosa, and the president of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat.
There is also a debate on the theme “Silencing weapons, creating favorable conditions for development in Africa”. We regret that “End to colonialism!” was not added to the title.
The program for “silencing arms in Africa” until 2020 was launched ten years ago and adopted in 2013 by African Union leaders to end all wars, armed conflicts, violence against women and human rights violations, as well as prevent the occurrence of new genocides on the continent. The objective is far from being achieved, but in the past two decades conflicts have been resolved in countries such as Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia or Sierra Leone and progress has been made in cases considered difficult, such as Somalia and Sudan, according to an assessment by African Institute for Security Studies (ISS).
The decolonization of Western Sahara and the independence of its people, however, is far from being achieved and the entry of Morocco in violation of the AU’s basic principles and contrary to the arms silencing program, is a shame for all African countries that have been conniving with this situation.
In 17 African states there is still some kind of armed conflict, but it is in Western Sahara that the most mined area per capita in the world is found, it is in Western Sahara that there is the largest military separation wall in the world, 2720km long and highly fortified. with high-tech military equipment.
It is in Western Sahara that African brothers and sisters continue to suffer the extreme violence of colonialism and where human rights are nothing more than a “Fata Morgana”.
