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Rabat – On Friday, French magazine Jeune Afrique wrote about the worsening diplomatic friction between Morocco and Mauritania and the death of former Polisario leader Mohamed Abdelaziz last May.
The weekly magazine said that tensions run high between the two countries after Mauritania showed its support to the Polisario Front by deploying its troops to the Moroccan city of Lagouira, amputating the Moroccan Sahara from the map, and not renewing the work permits of Moroccan employees.
The magazine added that Moroccan diplomats avoid talking about the setback in the ties between Morocco and Mauritania due to the delicacy of the issue. It added that Moroccan diplomats currently cannot publicly state anything because the friction between the two countries has not officially become apparent to public.
The magazine also reported that, in recent years, Mauritania seemed to relinquish its neutrality towards the issue of the Western Sahara and showed openness to the idea of a so-called Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
After the death of the former Polisario leader last May, Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz announced three days of national mourning. He also avoided meeting the Moroccan delegation during the African Union (AU) summit in Rwanda last month after Morocco formally decided to return to the AU after 32 years of absence.
Jeune Afrique also reported that Mauritanian media expressed its deepest disapproval of the Moroccan Ambassador to Mauritania last week, after he didn’t invite the Mauritanian ruling party, headed by Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, to an organized event celebrating the Moroccan public holiday known as Throne Day on July 31st.
The magazine shed light on the latest events between the two countries after Mauritanian media has reported that the Mauritanian military went to the Moroccan city of Lagouira and raised Mauritania’s flag anew, after it did the same thing last year. The occurrence pushed the Moroccan delegation to go to Nouakchott to scrutinize the issue.
Edited by Ghita Benslimane
