Rabat – Fahmi Said Ibrahim, Comoros’ former Foreign Minister, has called on the African Union to expel the Polisario Front’s self-styled “Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic” (SADR). The Comoran politician made the remarks while taking part in a regional seminar in Tanzania’s capital, Dar es Salaam.
Held under the theme “The Imperative of Post-Covid Recovery: How Can the Resolution of the Sahara Issue Spur African Stability and Integration?” the seminar was co-organized by the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS) and the Tanzania Peace Foundation (TPF) and brought together academics and political figures from Africa.
“The expulsion of the so-called ‘SADR’ from the African Union (AU) would correct a ‘historical injustice’ and would allow the pan-African organization to restore its credibility,” Ibrahim said.
In a statement to Morocco’s press agency, he added that it is “necessary to ensure that this unfortunate precedent is never repeated,” and that the membership of SADR represents “a historical injustice that discredited our continental organization.” Ibrahim added that there exist various legal and historic documents that confirm Morocco’s historical sovereignty over its southern provinces.
Other members who participated in the seminar expressed similar views, with Orlando Simba, the executive director of the Pan-African Congress in Kenya, noting that two thirds of AU members do not recognize “SADR” as a legitimate state.
Simba called on African states to end divisions in the pan-African organization and strengthen the entity’s union and integration by expelling the self-styled state.
The editor of South African media group “The Star” said that the conflict is the result of Algeria’s “toxic” policies.
Amine Laghidi, a diplomacy expert who was the only Moroccan representative in the seminar, said that the presence of Polisario’s self-proclaimed “Republic” in the AU opposes Morocco to a non-state entity that displays warmongering images without being able to make any concrete contributions to the organization.
