ADDIS ABABA – APS.dz.- The President of the African Union (AU) Commission, Mahamat Moussa Faki, received on Tuesday in Addis Ababa the Saharawi Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohamed Sidati, and discussed with him the situation in occupied Western Sahara and the role the AU can play in the completion of the decolonisation process.
“I received today (Tuesday at the African Union headquarters) the Saharawi Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohamed Sidati, and had an exchange with him on the situation in Western Sahara and the role the AU can play,” Moussa Faki said in a tweet.
According to the Saharawi news agency SPS, the talks between Mr Faki and Mr Sidati focused on the role of the AU in the implementation of the various decisions of the political bodies related to the Western Sahara issue, and the historical, political, moral and legal role of the pan-African organisation in advancing the decolonisation process” of the last colony in Africa.
Mr. Faki was briefed on developments in the current situation in Western Sahara, marked by the ongoing war between the Moroccan occupier and the Polisario Front, which began on 13 November 2020, after Rabat broke the ceasefire following the Moroccan aggression against peaceful Saharawi demonstrators in El-Guerguerat, according to the same source.
In this context, the head of Saharawi diplomacy recalled the African initiative which was adopted by the United Nations as a basis for the peace agreement signed between the Polisario Front and the Kingdom of Morocco in 1991 and which called for a referendum on self-determination for the Saharawi people.
He also reaffirmed that the Saharawi Republic “will remain faithful to its obligations towards the continental organisation”, recalling “the responsibility of the AU as a partner of the United Nations in the efforts to achieve a lasting and just peace based on the exercise by the Saharawi people of their inalienable right to self-determination and independence”.
Mr Sidati also asked the AU Commission President to “pay special attention to the human rights situation in the Saharawi territories occupied by Morocco”, according to SPS.
