As Nations Flee From Backing Western Sahara, South Africa Reaffirms Support ‘Without Hesitation’

In the last few years, several nations have backtracked their support for the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), the government declared in the territory of Western Sahara by the indigenous Saharawi people, or for an independence referendum for the territory, which is currently under Moroccan control.

While hosting a visit by Brahim Ghali, leader of the Saharawi liberation group Polisario Front, on Tuesday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said his government supports SADR “without hesitation."

"We are concerned about the continuing silence in the world regarding the struggle for self-determination of the people of Western Sahara," Ramaphosa told Ghali in Pretoria.

"We believe that other struggles are expressed more loudly ... and that is why as South Africans we clearly state that we are firm and unwavering in ... our support for the Sahrawi people," he added.

"It is a just struggle, it is a noble struggle, it is an honorable struggle, a people that wants to decide its own destiny through self-determination," Ramaphosa said. He went on to compare the Saharawi struggle with the struggle against the white supremacist Apartheid movement that governed South Africa before 1994, depriving the indigenous Black population of political and social rights.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, accompanied by South Africa's Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor, speaks during a news conference after meeting together at the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation in Pretoria, South Africa, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. Blinken is on a ten day trip to Cambodia, Philippines, South Africa, Congo, and Rwanda.

© AP Photo / Andrew Harnik

Mathu Joyini, South Africa’s permanent representative at the United Nations, similarly said last week that “the inalienable right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination and independence is not negotiable.”

“The International Court of Justice has given credence to this position when it stated in its advisory opinion on 16 October 1975 that there were no links of territorial sovereignty between Morocco and the Western Sahara prior to the Spanish colonization of the Territory,” she recalled before the UN 4th Committee on Decolonization.

Anti-Colonial Struggle

A former Spanish colony, Western Sahara broke free in 1975 due to anti-colonial resistance by indigenous Saharawi people and the Polisario Front. However, Morocco to the north then seized the land, claiming it was historically a part of Morocco, and Mauritania, to the south, also grabbed large parts of the territory. Polisario fought both groups, forcing Mauritania out and fighting Morocco to a standstill. A United Nations-supervised ceasefire in 1991 created MINURSO, a UN mission to oversee an independence referendum that has never happened.

That ceasefire fell apart in late 2020, when Moroccan troops forcibly evicted a Saharawi protest encampment on a new border crossing to Mauritania.

A month later, the United States backtracked on its support for the UN mandate and sided with Morocco’s claims, all as part of a deal to convince Rabat to recognize Israel and normalize relations.

US Ambassador to Morocco David Fischer signs a new map of Morocco on December 13, 2020, that includes the disputed territory of Western Sahara as part of Moroccan territory, which US President Donald Trump had just recognized.

© Sputnik Screenshot

In the nearly two years since, several other nations have also reversed their support for Polisario, including Spain, Guyana, and Peru. Kenya temporarily ended its support last month when President William Ruto took office, but immediately reversed it, reaffirming the country abides by the African Union's charter, which supports the "unquestionable and inalienable right of a people to self-determination."

As Sputnik has reported, the human rights situation in Western Sahara has deteriorated precipitously since November 2020, although it was already dismal before the war reignited. Human rights defenders have recorded numerous instances of journalists and activists being harassed and assaulted, jailed without reason, besieged in their homes, and protests being suppressed.

Keeping to Africa’s Non-Aligned Path

Since Russia launched its special operation in Ukraine in February, the US has tried to pressure other nations into condemning the operation and abiding by US sanctions against Moscow. That’s especially true in Africa, where several senior US diplomats have toured in recent months trying to woo countries like South Africa, Rwanda, and Democratic Republic of the Congo away from their neutrality.

South Africa, a longstanding member of the Non-Aligned Movement, has stood firm. Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he visited Pretoria in August that “We should be equally concerned at what is happening to the people of Palestine, as we are with what is happening to the people of Ukraine.”

Ramaphosa reiterated the point during a US visit in September, condemning a sanctions bill being considered by the US Congress that would specifically target African nations for cooperating with Russia. Ramaphosa returned home to deal with an urgent domestic crisis rather than attend the UN General Assembly, but Macky Sall, who is both chairperson of the African Union and the President of Senegal, said in no uncertain terms that the continent “does not want to be the breeding ground of a new Cold War.”

In this Feb. 27, 2021 file photo, Brahim Ghali, leader of the Polisario front, delivers a speech in a refugee camp near Tindouf, southern Algeria. Brahim Ghali, the leader of the Western Sahara independence movement at the heart of a diplomatic spat between Spain and Morocco, will appear before an investigating judge in Spain on June 1, 2021. Ghali, who has been recovering from COVID-19 in a Spanish hospital, faces a probe for possible genocide and a lawsuit for alleged tortures.

© AP Photo / Fateh Guidoum

The AU also recognizes the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic as one of its member states.

While Moscow has never recognized the SADR, it has strongly supported MINURSO. During a meeting last week with Staffan de Mistura, the personal envoy of the UN Secretary General for Western Sahara, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov "stressed the importance of achieving a just, long-term and mutually acceptable solution to the Western Sahara conflict on the basis of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions," according to a foreign ministry readout.