Vice-President Mokgweetsi Masisi, reiterated Thursday Botswana’s support to the struggle of the Sahrawi people for their right to self-determination.
Masisi expressed regret that Western Sahara is the only remaining colonised territory in the African continent. He stressed that it was necessary that the Saharawi people be allowed to exercise their right through a referendum under the supervision of the United Nations.
The regular session of the UN General Assembly is held this year under the theme, ‘focusing on People: Striving for Peace and a Decent Life for All on a Sustainable Planet’.
Masisi’s statement comes a week after the inaugural 36th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland expressed support for the Sahrawi people. Several ambassadors and experts in law and international affairs at the conference entitled ‘The Western Sahara issue, the last colony in the African continent”, emphasized the need to implement the recent UN General Assembly resolutions on the right to self-determination and the right of the Saharawi people to exercise their sovereignty over their natural resources. They clarified the situation of the territory from the point of view of international law, which considers that the Moroccan presence in the territory is a military occupation, which means according to international law, the illegality of the commercialization of its resources, without the previous consent of the only representative of the Saharawi people, the Frente POLISARIO.
Throughout the sessions, a Sahrawi delegation, composed of civil society actors, participated in both from the refugee camps and the Occupied Territories, as well as the permanent delegation of the Frente POLISARIO at the United Nations in Switzerland.
