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Rabat – Burkina Faso on Friday opened a general consulate in the southern Moroccan city of Dakhla, joining a growing cohort of African countries in support of Morocco’s territorial integrity.
Moroccan Foreign Affairs Minister Nasser Bourita attended the inauguration ceremony with his Burkinabe counterpart Alpha Barry.
This is the fifth African consulate general to open in the city of Dakhla. The inauguration follows the opening of the consulate general of Gambia on January 7, Guinea on January 17, Djibouti on February 28 and Liberia on March 12.
The inauguration is part of a larger achievement for Morocco’s position on the Western Sahara question. Since at least November 2019, the opening of several African representations in Dakhla and Laayoune has lent more credence to Morocco’s efforts in its southern provinces.
In recent months, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Burundi, Gabon, the Central African Republic, Sao Tome Principe, and Comoros all opened diplomatic representations in Laayoune.
These openings consolidate the growing pro-Morocco momentum on the Western Sahara issue.
Meanwhile, African countries’ overwhelming support for Morocco’s territorial integrity has caused profound frustrations in the pro-Polisario camp. Algeria, the militant front’s chief enabler, has notably — and desperately — protested against the new political momentum and described the openings as “flagrant violations.”
Morocco, for its part, has the new momentum. The country sees in the openings the culmination of its decades-long efforts to defend and prove its sovereignty over Western Sahara against the self-proclaimed and Algeria-baked Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic’s (SADR).
Both Algeria and the Polisario Front have vociferously protested against the opening of diplomatic representations, saying it constituted a “blatant violation” of the UN-led political process to end the Western Sahara conflict.
When Cote d’Ivoire inaugurated its consulate general in southern Morocco earlier this year, Algeria expressed its frustration by withdrawing its ambassador from the West African country.
In response, Bourita said, “Those who prepare to write press releases [against Morocco] and call back their ambassador for consultation must continue on this path.”
