Rabat – Members of the Moroccan diaspora held peaceful protests in defense of Morocco’s territorial integrity over the weekend in the US and Liege, Belgium.
Moroccans in Orlando, Florida organized a demonstration on Sunday to express their support for Morocco’s action to secure the Guerguerat border crossing and all measures Rabat has taken to defend the country’s territorial integrity and unity.
Waving Moroccan flags and singing the Moroccan and American national anthems, the diaspora in the southern US state celebrated “the heroic and decisive action” of the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) in Guerguerat, according to Morocco’s state media.
Armed elements of Polisario staged an illegal three-week blockade of the Guerguerat border crossing between Morocco and Mauritania from October 21 to November 13, when FAR carried out a non-offensive operation to secure the flow of civil and commercial traffic through the post.
Moroccans from other US states such as Virginia, New York, and Massachusetts joined the Floridian community to show solidarity with Morocco and condemn Polisario’s “acts of brigandage and banditry.”
The Consul General of Morocco in the United States, Abdelkader Jamoussi, was notably present during the demonstration in Orlando, which carried the slogan, “Moroccans of America at the service of the national cause.”
Demonstrations in Liege
Members of the Moroccan diaspora in Belgium and Luxembourg organized a demonstration in the Belgian city of Liege on Sunday in support of Morocco’s actions to defend its territorial integrity and national unity.
Moroccans and non-Moroccans alike rallied to demonstrate solidarity with FAR’s action to end Polisario’s blockade in Guerguerat and condemn the separatists’ continuous violent maneuvers in the UN-monitored buffer zone.
Like the Moroccan diaspora in the US, the demonstrators in Liege waved flags and sang patriotic songs to convey their national pride.
Under the slogan “Morocco will remain in its Sahara and the Sahara will remain in its Morocco,” a famous line of King Mohammed VI, the demonstrators defended Morocco’s approach to the Western Sahara conflict. They raised the 2007 Autonomy Plan as the only legitimate solution to the dispute, “a hymn to peace and national harmony.”
Read also: Moroccan Diaspora Protests Polisario’s Maneuvers in Guerguerat
After Morocco acted on November 13 to secure Guerguerat, Moroccans in various countries staged peaceful protests to show their support for the decision. Demonstrations in Spain also took the opportunity to condemn Polisario supporters’ storming of the Moroccan Consulate General in Valencia on November 15.
During protests in Paris, peaceful Moroccan demonstrators faced direct attacks from Polisario supporters. A collective of Franco-Moroccan women is taking legal action against the perpetrators.
Moroccans have not reported other instances of violence during similar demonstrations in other countries.
