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Burkina Faso is the latest African country to express support for Morocco’s territorial integrity and to voice solidarity with its decision to lift a blockade in Guerguerat, near the Moroccan-Mauritanian border.
Morocco’s November 13 operation, which earned great support from the international community, lifted a three-week blockade by the separatist Polisario Front, restoring the flow of traffic between Morocco and Mauritania.
The Burkinabe Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a statement today, November 23, expressing its concern about the illegal acts by Polisario’s militia, the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.
Burkina Faso also expressed its hope for a return to the non-violent status quo between Morocco and the Polisario Front, despite the Guerguerat events. The separatist group declared “war” against Morocco after breaking the 1991 ceasefire agreement on November 13.
In today’s statement, Ouagadougou announced that it had closely followed the Polisario Front’s provocative acts since October 21, “which prevented the free movement of people and goods and weakened the ceasefire.”
Burkina Faso urged the separatist group to “immediately” stop its hostile acts which obstruct the UN-led political process in Western Sahara.
Today’s statement came one month after the West African country opened a consulate general in Dakhla, in Morocco’s southern provinces.
The consulate, inaugurated on October 23, was the fifth African diplomatic representation to open in Western Sahara, in support of Morocco’s sovereignty over the region.
The southern Moroccan cities of Laayoune and Dakhla now host 16 diplomatic representations, including 15 African consulates.
Today’s statement also puts Burkina Faso among a rapidly-growing list of countries that voiced their support for Morocco’s recent action in Guerguerat.
The list includes 17 other African states: Comoros, the Central African Republic, Sao Tome and Principe, Djibouti, Gabon, Eswatini, The Gambia, Equatorial Guinea, Somalia, Guinea-Bissau, Zambia, Benin, Chad, Senegal, Mali, Liberia, and Malawi.
