AU maintains its principled position on Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination

Addis Ababa - The African Union (AU) affirmed that it maintains its principled position on the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and the decolonization of Western Sahara, said an AU’s communiqué released on Thursday.

In a meeting with the Sahrawi Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohamed Salem Ould Salek in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), President of the African Union Commission Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma affirmed that AU “will take the necessary measures, as guarantor of the process of the Sahrawi people’s self-determination, to move the file forward and facilitate a resolution providing for the self-determination of the Sahrawi people on the basis of the United Nations Charter and the international law.”

A Number of current issues concerning the Western Saharan cause were broached by the two sides.

The two sides also broached the implementation of the United Nations peace plan, the Security Council’s relevant resolutions and the decisions and declaration of the African Union aimed at ensuring the self-determination of the Sahrawi people.

The Sahrawi minister insisted on the right of his people to self-determination and the decolonization of their territory, while lamenting particularly the “serious violations of human rights against Sahrawi citizens, as well as the illegal exploitation of their natural resources,” added the source. (SPS)