{"id":30213,"date":"2016-11-11T02:10:31","date_gmt":"2016-11-11T02:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/western-sahara-opposes-morocco-s-african-union\/"},"modified":"2016-11-11T02:10:24","modified_gmt":"2016-11-11T02:10:24","slug":"western-sahara-opposes-morocco-s-african-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/western-sahara-opposes-morocco-s-african-union\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Sahara opposes Morocco&#8217;s African Union bid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{Western Sahara says Morocco should not be allowed to return to the African Union unless it withdraws from the disputed territory.}<\/p>\n<p>Morocco applied to rejoin the AU in July, after pulling out in 1984, when the body recognised Western Sahara&#8217;s independence.<\/p>\n<p>King Mohammed VI of Morocco has toured various African countries in recent weeks seeking support for the bid.<\/p>\n<p>Moroccan troops went into Western Sahara after Spain withdrew in 1975.<\/p>\n<p>It says Western Sahara is part of its historic territory.<\/p>\n<p>Western Sahara Foreign Minister Mohamed Salek Ould Salek told the BBC that Morocco&#8217;s occupation contradicted the founding principles of the AU.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The aim and essence of the Union is the liberation of Africa. Morocco [has] become a coloniser,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We fought against colonialism and apartheid; how come we are going to accept a country who declared publicly and solemnly that he is occupying a part of a country who is a member of the African Union?&#8221; Mr Salek asked.<\/p>\n<p>He insists that if Morocco &#8220;wants to join the club, [it] must respect the rules of the club&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Morocco&#8217;s application will be discussed at the AU summit in January.<\/p>\n<p>{{How did we get here?}}<\/p>\n<p>1975-76: Morocco annexes two-thirds of Western Sahara after colonial power Spain withdraws.<\/p>\n<p>1975-76: Polisario Front declares the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), with a government-in-exile in Algeria. Thousands of Sahrawi refugees flee to western Algeria to set up camps.<\/p>\n<p>1984: Morocco leaves the Organisation of African Unity (which later became the African Union) in protest at the SADR&#8217;s admission to the body.<\/p>\n<p>1991: UN-monitored ceasefire begins in Western Sahara, but the territory&#8217;s status remains undecided and ceasefire violations are reported. The following decade sees much wrangling over a proposed referendum on the future of the territory but the deadlock is not broken.<\/p>\n<p>March 2016: Morocco threatens to pull its soldiers out of UN global peacekeeping missions in Western Sahara, after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon uses the term &#8220;occupation&#8221; when referring to the territory.<\/p>\n<p>May 2016: Long-time Polisario Front leader Mohamed Abdelaziz dies aged 68<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-16334 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/_92387562_gettyimages-50965883-1.jpg\" alt=\"King Mohammed VI of Morocco has been touring Africa in support of his bid to rejoin the AU\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{Western Sahara says Morocco should not be allowed to return to the African Union unless it withdraws from the disputed territory.} Morocco applied to rejoin the AU in July, after pulling out in 1984, when the body recognised Western Sahara&#8217;s independence. King Mohammed VI of Morocco has toured various African countries in recent weeks seeking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-30213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30213"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=30213"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=30213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}