The United Nations fail the Sahrawi, Africans must defend them, By Owei Lakemfa

Given the duplicity in the UNSC, it is left for freedom-loving countries, peoples, groups and persons, to rise to the defence of the Sahrawi. In particular, Nigeria and South Africa have the duty to team up with Algeria and lead Africans to defend our brothers and sisters in Western Sahara.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meets at the end of October on the future of Western Sahara. The emerging consensus in the 15-member body is not to renew the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), which expires on 31 October. Since the main objective of MINURSO is to organise a referendum on the Sahrawi demand for independence, this technically would mean handing over the founding member of the African Union (AU) to Morocco.

This itself would be in furtherance of the UNSC 31 October, 2025 Resolution 2797, which told the parties to engage in “unconditional talks, based on Morocco’s autonomy proposal.” The Moroccan proposal is to grant Western Sahara “semi-autonomy” under its 27-year monarchical ruler, King Mohammed VI. But for international pressure and how to explain to the African continent why one of its sovereign states is to be handed over to a dictatorship, the UNSC might have taken more retrogressive steps. The Sahrawi, before the UNSC, is like a chick pleading its case before a panel with two-thirds composed of hawks.

Eleven of the fifteen members of the UNSC are already committed to Morocco and its recolonisation agenda. Only Latvia, China, Pakistan and Russia are maintaining neutrality in the UNSC. The other eleven countries are in support of the dubious Moroccan plan.

But the Western Sahara issue is a straight forward one of a peoples’ right to decolonisation. It was colonised by Spain in 1884. Then the United Nations Resolution 1514 of 1960 declared the right of all colonised peoples to decide their future. On this basis, many countries gained independence.

However, in the case of Western Sahara, rather than decolonise, between 1975 and 1976 Spain handed it to two of its neighbours – Mauritania and Morocco. After armed struggle, the former withdrew and the latter seized more of the territories on the basis that Western Sahara was its pre-colonial territory. The UN referred the matter to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which found the Moroccan claims to be false. The UNSC, on 29 April, 1991, under Resolution 690, established MINURSO to organise a referendum in Western Sahara, which would enable the Sahrawi determine their future.

Morocco has since then rejected the UN resolution. But rather than insist on this, the European Union, the US, and their allies want to impose Moroccan autocratic rule on the Sahrawi.

UNSC member, the US, relying on its own national constitution, on 10 December, 2020 gifted Western Sahara, which it never owned, to Morocco. On that Day, an Executive Order was issued stating: “I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim that, the United States recognizes that the entire Western Sahara territory is part of the Kingdom of Morocco.” Morocco was ecstatic about the gift. But if in truth Western Sahara were owned by Morocco, why would it be excited that the US offered it as a gift?

A second UNSC member is Colombia. The government of President Abelardo de la Espriella declared that with effect from 7 August, 2026: “Colombia recognises Morocco’s sovereignty over all its territory, including Western Sahara.”

Bahrain, a third member, in February, sent its Foreign Minister, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani to the occupied Western Sahara city of Laayoune and declared support for Morocco.

Denmark, which usually claims to be liberal, supports the recolonisation of Western Sahara. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen proclaimed the Moroccan plan as “credible” and a “serious and essential contribution to the ongoing UN process.” The country claims that the Moroccan takeover plan is a “good basis for a mutually agreed solution by all parties.”

Greece, a supposed neutral member of the UNSC, on 7 September flaunted its support for the recolonisation of the Sahrawi. Its Foreign Minister, George Gerapetritis, declared in Athens that this was the only solution to the Western Saharan Question. Greece, which claims to be the mother of democracy, argues that a plan that hands over Western Sahara to a monarchical dictatorship is the just solution. Greece, once ruled by fascists, added a ridiculous condition; that its support for the renewal of the MINURSO mandate will be conditioned on the acceptance of the Moroccan recolonisation plan.

Panama is a republic with a history of kowtowing to other countries. So, it was not surprising when in May its Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Arturo Hueyos Boyd flew to Rabat to pledge the support of his country to Morocco’s expansionism. He added the ridiculous declaration that his country’s embassy in Morocco would now extend its reach to Western Sahara.

What may be most tragic for Africa is that its three countries on the UNSC have also joined the West in the League of Re-colonisation Countries (LRC). Liberia and Ethiopia are the only two countries in the continent that were never colonised. It is therefore perplexing that Liberia would, in the UNSC, back the recolonisation of a fellow African country with which its seats in the hallowed chambers of the AU. In January, 2025, its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sara Beysolow Nyanti, in violation of AU rules, illegally flew into Western Sahara to declare support for the Moroccan annexation.

One of the most duplicitous positions on this issue is that of the virtually failed state of Somalia. Its President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, on 10 November, 2025, flew to Algeria and promised to stand by that country’s principled position on the fundamental human right of the Sahrawi to determine their future. Some days later, its Foreign Minister Abdisalam Abdi Ali popped up in Rabat to back Morocco. In one of the most ridiculous diplomatic denials, the Somali Presidency claimed it learnt of its Foreign Minister’s Rabat outing in the Moroccan press. But it neither denounced him nor repudiated the agreement he signed with the Moroccans.

In April, 2025, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Western Sahara and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Sahrawi independence. SADC member, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is the third African member of the UNSC, denounced it. The DRC Foreign Ministry declared: “The MoU signed is not a binding document and therefore the Democratic Republic of Congo remains sovereign on this issue…the Congolese government defends the position of the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Morocco over Western Sahara.”

Given the duplicity in the UNSC, it is left for freedom-loving countries, peoples, groups and persons, to rise to the defence of the Sahrawi. In particular, Nigeria and South Africa have the duty to team up with Algeria and lead Africans to defend our brothers and sisters in Western Sahara.

Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.