The Sahrawi Participation in the TICAD Conference in Japan and the accumulated Moroccan scandals

The circumstances and background of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (known as TICAD) have exposed the numerous Moroccan propaganda and lies that preceded and accompanied the conference. These revelations highlight the shallow and failed Moroccan official attempts to counter the genuine victories achieved by the Sahrawi cause on various fronts, despite the immense corruption and bribery employed by the occupying regime to buy allegiances and hide the reality of its repeated defeats.

Regarding the Tokyo International Conference, or TICAD, it is a multilateral partnership involving the African Union, Japan, the United Nations, the United Nations Development Programme, and the World Bank. Given that the African Union is the co-organizing of this conference, the Sahrawi Republic has the total right to participate in it, regardless of the positions or wishes of other partners or host countries.

The Sahrawi Republic’s right to participate stems from clear African Union decisions, which affirm that all member states of the Union, unless subject to sanctions by the Union during the conference, have the right to participate in all meetings organized or co-organized by the Union (e.g., TICAD, the African Union-European Union Summit, the African Union-Arab League Summit, etc.).

However, the Moroccan occupying regime is disturbed by the growing presence of the Sahrawi Republic in various multilateral and international forums, as this presence exposes the falsehoods of its propaganda and embarrasses it in front of its allies, whom it pressures to reject the Sahrawi state’s participation in African activities that they may host.

Consequently, the occupying regime has repeatedly attempted to obstruct Sahrawi delegations’ participation in TICAD meetings. For instance, during the 2018 TICAD meeting in Maputo, Mozambique, Moroccan Foreign Minister tried to prevent the Sahrawi delegation from entering the meeting hall. Even more, Bourita stood as an irritable guard at the meeting room’s door, his colleagues even tried to prevent the Mozambican Foreign Minister from entering with the Sahrawi Foreign Minister, an act that led the host country to take stringent measures against the Moroccan delegation and deny most of its members entry.

In 2020, at the TICAD meetings in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Moroccan ambassador in Addis Ababa created a verbal confrontation with the Sahrawi delegation, using offensive and inappropriate language and attempting to obstruct Sahrawi participation, failing as usual.

At the TICAD summit in Tunisia in August 2022, attended by Sahrawi President Mr. Ibrahim Ghali, who was received by his Tunisian counterpart like other African presidents, Morocco made a significant scandal, withdrawing its ambassador from Tunisia and issuing a strongly worded statement attacking Tunisia. However, Morocco was completely silent when the Sahrawi president participated months earlier, in February 2022, in the European Union-African Union partnership summit, which was chaired by France. Morocco did not object, condemn France or Belgium (the host country), or recall or withdraw its ambassadors. Hence, it became clear to everyone that Morocco’s outcry is only directed against African countries or those where it has leverage and pressures.

Morocco also tried to exclude the Sahrawi Republic from participating in the African Union-Arab League summit at the end of 2023, working together with Saudi Arabia, the host country. However, Sahrawi diplomacy, supported by a large group of significant African Union member states, thwarted this desperate attempt, forcing Saudi Arabia to cancel the summit and replace it with a special summit between Saudi Arabia and African countries it invited in the last minute.

Moreover, Morocco has persistently attempted to alter the texts of African Union decisions related to partnership classifications and the nature of participation. It aims to change the classification of TICAD from a multilateral partnership involving the Union and the mentioned partners to a partnership between African countries and Japan, since this latter type of partnership does not require the participation of all member states.

It is worth noting that many African countries are becoming increasingly frustrated with the crude bullying tactics employed by Moroccan diplomats, particularly the Moroccan ambassador to the African Union, known for his arrogance and lack of basic ethics and ill-manners, who has repeatedly caused the failure or tension in subcommittee meetings of the Permanent Representatives Committee.

In conclusion, the repeated farces and accumulated scandals of the occupying regime, and the occasional falls of its delegates, reflect the level of triviality and incompetence of its diplomatic and political representatives, and its failure to persuade others due to lack of evidence and argument. However, they also genuinely reflect the strength of the Sahrawi cause and the painful blows the Moroccan occupying regime faces on various fronts and in different confrontations.