Morocco receives strong support for its commitment to the reintegration of suspended countries into the African Union

Morocco supports the reintegration into the African Union (AU) of countries suspended by this organisation due to coups d'état carried out there. 

The Moroccan kingdom has received much support and gratitude for this integrative initiative. After Burkina Faso, it is now the turn of Gabon and Niger to thank the North African country for this diplomatic move to integrate countries from the Sahel and Central Africa into the AU while the political transition is taking place after the coups d'état and the establishment of military juntas in power, as has happened in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger itself.

The Foreign Ministers of Niger and Gabon sent an official letter to the Moroccan Foreign Minister, Nasser Bourita, to express their gratitude for Morocco's support for the reintegration into the African Union of nations in political transition processes with a total commitment of the Moroccan kingdom ‘in favour of peace and the promotion of dialogue on the African continent’ through talks with the Confederation of Sahel States. 

These countries involved are making themselves available to Morocco to support the North African country in its laudable mission of promoting peace processes, political transitions and reintegration into supranational bodies such as the African Union.

In his letter, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Niger in particular referred to Nasser Bourita's ‘the noble initiative of Morocco in the informal consultation organised on 18 March 2025 with the countries of the Confederation of Sahel States (CSS) and those in political transition in Africa’.

In his message to Bourita, the Gabonese Foreign Minister praised the meeting of 18 March within the AU Peace and Security Council. He emphasised that this initiative reflects ‘the skill and dynamism of Moroccan diplomacy’, while reaffirming ‘the role of Morocco on the African political stage’ and globally in general.

The Moroccan proposal includes Burkina Faso, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Sudan. It should be remembered that these states did not participate in the vote to elect the new members of the African Union Commission during the 38th summit held in mid-February in Addis Ababa. 

This absence affected Morocco's candidacy for the first Vice-Presidency of the Commission, a position that was finally awarded to Algeria. 

As chair of the African Union Peace and Security Council during March, Morocco organised informal consultations with the six countries in political transition on 18 March in Addis Ababa.

These exchanges allowed the representatives of these states, suspended from the AU, to evaluate the progress of their processes of democratic transition and to maintain a constructive dialogue with the African supranational organisation.

Of the six states involved, four recognise Morocco's sovereignty over Western Sahara: Burkina Faso, Gabon, Guinea and Sudan. Niger, for its part, supports the Autonomy Plan proposed by Morocco. However, Mali distances itself and continues to maintain links with the Polisario Front, a political-military organisation that is in conflict with Morocco over Western Sahara, supporting the holding of an independence referendum for the Saharawi population, which has little international backing and is difficult to realise, according to various analysts, due to problems such as the drawing up of an electoral roll in view of the division of the population between those residing in the so-called southern provinces of Morocco and those living in difficult conditions in the refugee camps located in Algeria, Morocco's great political rival in the Maghreb, due to its support for the Polisario Front and, above all, after the Algerian decision to break off diplomatic relations with the Moroccan kingdom in August 2021 after having accused the Moroccan kingdom of ‘hostile acts’ and due to deep political differences on issues such as Western Sahara, a question that has remained unresolved since the end of the Spanish colonial period almost five decades ago. 

Morocco has received broad international backing for its Autonomy Plan for Western Sahara, which proposes a wide degree of autonomy for the territory under Moroccan sovereignty, respecting the resolutions of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of developing the area to the maximum and granting broad self-government to the Saharawi authorities, leaving foreign and defence policy in the hands of the Moroccan state. 

Important nations such as the United States, France, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Germany and Spain itself have shown their support for Morocco's proposal of autonomy for Western Sahara, which demonstrates the great diplomatic power of the Moroccan kingdom, which attaches great importance to the issue by considering the Saharawi territory as part of its southern provinces.