The United Nations fail the Saharawi, Africans must defend them, by Owei Lakemfa

The United Nations Security Council, UNSC meets end October, 2026 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 October 31, 2026. Since the main objective of MINURSO is to organize a referendum on the Saharawi 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 October 31, 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 Saharawi, 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 recolonization 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 decolonization. Then the United Nations Resolution 1514 of 1960, declared the right of all colonized peoples to decide their future. On this basis, many countries gained independence.

However, in the case of Western Sahara, rather than decolonize, Spain in 1975-1976 handed it to two of its neigbours; 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 April 29, 1991 under Resolution 690 established MINURSO to organize a referendum in Western Sahara which would enable the Saharawi 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 Saharawi…