Morocco is in the process of expelling the Polisario from the AU by expanding its embassies in the Sahara.

Takla welcomes new ambassador from African country Togo, on Thursday, July 21, opened a diplomatic mission in the city of Sahara, thus recognizing Morocco of the Sahara. Algeria and the Polisario have yet to comment on the incident. On the other hand, Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, accustomed to presiding over this type of ceremony, welcomed in a statement to the press “a third of the countries of the African Union, in all sub-regions”. of the continent, opened an embassy at Lyon or Takla”.

From the start of this dynamic in 2020, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Comoros, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Essaudini, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea (Conakry), Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Malawi, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo and Zambia have diplomatic representations in the Sahara.

In the list, 11 African countries have previously ratified ‘SADR’.

In this list of African countries that recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, it should be noted that 11 have previously established diplomatic relations with the “Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR)”. They are Burkina Faso, Burundi, Eswatini, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Malawi, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Togo and Zambia.

A notable figure, if necessary, attests to the erosion of support the Polisario has enjoyed in Africa, including parts of the continent it has long acquired. Thus, the kingdom even succeeded in pacifying the five countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), considered South Africa’s backyard, along with Algeria, Polisario’s other major ally. They are Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Eswatini, Comoros Islands and Malawi.

Morocco is slowly but surely approaching the two-thirds threshold needed to get the AU’s constitutional amendment approved in Article 32, which led to Polisario’s ouster. “Amendments or amendments shall be adopted by the Assembly of the Union (Heads of State) unanimously or, failing that, by a two-thirds majority, and subject to the consent of all the Member States, in accordance with their respective constitutional rights”, the text states.

As a reminder, during the Kigali Summit in Rwanda in July 2016, Morocco succeeded in getting 28 states to sign it before joining the African Union in February 2017. The head of the AU, the late Idriss Deby, “must suspend the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic from the activities of the African Union and all its bodies, in favor of the UN’s efforts to play and contribute constructively to the AU, a concrete solution to the territorial dispute over the Sahara”. Morocco must continue its diplomatic marathon to convince other African countries to open embassies before trying again to expel Polisario from the African Union.