Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea and Guinea Bissau inaugurated, today, their Consulates General in Dakhla

PERSISMA, Dakhla – Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea and Guinea Bissau proceeded today with the official opening of their Consulates General in Dakhla in the Moroccan Sahara, which were inaugurated by H.E. Mr. Nasser Bourita, Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Living Abroad and his Burkinabe, Equatoguinean and Bissau Guinean counterparts, respectively H.E. Mr. Alpha Bary, H.E. Mr. Someon Oyono Esono Angue and H.E. Mrs. Suzi Carla Barbosa.

These openings only demonstrate the profound historical ties as well as the excellent relations between the Kingdom of Morocco and these brotherly African countries that only continue to grow. Through these openings, these countries clearly reaffirm the irreversible Moroccanity of the Sahara.

In this regard, the Southern Provinces now host 13 Consular Representations. 6 Consulates General are present in Laayoune (Comoros Islands, Gabon, Sao-Tome-and­Principe, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire and Burundi) and 7 Consulates General are present in Dakhla (Liberia, Djibouti, Gambia, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea and Guinea Bissau).

These Consulates are established to provide consular services to these countries’ nationals, residents or transiting through the Moroccan Sahara region. The Consulates General are meant to serve, indeed, the strengthening of the socio-economic and cultural cooperation between Morocco and these countries. Thanks to the New Development Model for the Southern Provinces, the Southern Provinces are set to become a hub and a transit point between the North and the South, between the Kingdom of Morocco and the rest of the Continent.

With its Arabic-speaking, French-speaking, English-speaking and Portuguese-speaking diversity, Africa sends a clear message to the international community that the Moroccanity of the Sahara in irreversible.

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic paused for a short time the dynamics of the opening of the Consulates General in the Southern Provinces. Notwithstanding the desperate gesticulations of the Algerian diplomacy, other countries will join this momentum very soon.

These consular bodies in the Moroccan Sahara increase the international presence, especially that of Africa, in the Southern Provinces. Morocco is serene in its approach, clear in its vision and confident in the power of the law. Morocco will continue his policy of opening up Consulates General to African countries to make the Sahara a link between Morocco and the rest of Africa.

This concrete recognition of the Moroccanity of the Sahara must be taken into account by the United Nations when dealing with this issue. This is a major and foreground development illustrating the absence of any other solution to the Question of the Moroccan Sahara than within the framework of the Moroccan sovereignty and territorial integrity.