Rabat – A new petition on Avaaz.com – which has gathered over 2,000 signatures since it was published on November 24th – asserts the Moroccan identity of the Western Sahara and urges the African Union to recognize the North African kingdom’s sovereignty in the disputed territory.
“In November 6, 1975, King Hassan II launched a Green March towards the Moroccan Sahara to recover it from the Spain that occupied it; 350,000 Moroccans have participated in this peaceful march,” the text of the petition says, recounting the region’s colonial past. “History proves the Morocco-anity of the Sahara and the Sherifian Kingdom under the reign of King Mohammed VI is on the right track despite the enemies that surround it.”
King Mohammed VI announced Morocco’s return to the African Union in October, but the organization’s internal congress has yet to formally reinstate the nation as a member via vote.
The monarch has spent the bulk of the past two months touring other African countries to build private and public sector partnerships in order ramp up support for the kingdom’s return. He is currently in Madagascar.
As a political reaction to the AU’s recognition of the self-declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in 1984, King Hassan II suspended Morocco’s participation in the continental organization – leaving the union’s political agenda regarding the Western Sahara in the hands of Algeria and the kingdom’s other regional rivals.
The SADR, led by the separatist Polisario Front, claims to be a government in exile and carries out the bulk of its operations in Tindouf, with the support of the Algerian regime.
