Development Dynamic in Moroccan Sahara Highlighted in New York

The all-round development dynamic in Morocco’s southern provinces was highlighted, in New York, before the members of the Fourth Committee of the United Nations General Assembly. “The Moroccan Sahara is experiencing a socio-economic dynamic, which is the result of large-scale reforms which place women’s empowerment at the center of their priorities,” underlined Moroccan MP from the southern provinces Leila Dahi. Ms. Dahi, who is also the president of the Youth Caucus within the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), stressed that Sahrawi women have chosen to contribute to the democratic experience that the Kingdom is witnessing, by assuming pioneering roles at the national and international levels. She noted that the populations of the southern provinces chose their legitimate representatives through free and transparent elections, noting that the Sahrawi populations embrace the values of openness and peace in a Nation proud of its cultural pluralism. The speaker also denounced the maneuvers of the enemies of Morocco’s territorial integrity which hinder the efforts led by the UN Secretary General to achieve a pragmatic, serious and realistic political solution to the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara. She stressed, in this regard, that Morocco has demonstrated good faith and pragmatism through the autonomy initiative which the Sahrawis consider as the only basis for a definitive solution within the framework of the UN efforts, while other parties are content to rehash past theses that have been buried once and for all by the international community. In her turn, MP Hayat Laaraych, who is also from Morocco’s southern provinces, spoke of the political experience in the Moroccan Sahara which allows local populations to manage their own affairs within the framework of pluralism, which constitutes, according to the speaker, the backbone of democratic practice. She also underlined that the Sahrawis trust the elected institutions, hence their massive participation during the general, legislative, regional and local elections which took place in the Kingdom in September 2021. It is a moral contract between citizens and elected institutions, she said, adding that the whole region is today reaping the fruits of this dynamic, particularly in terms of development. The Sahrawi elected official also noted that at a time when the populations of the Moroccan Sahara are fully enjoying their rights and an anchored democratic practice, an armed group, a remnant of the Cold War, is bloodily repressing the inhabitants of the Tindouf camps.