The Western Sahara Analysis Centre (CASO) urged France on Tuesday to “scrupulously” respect international and European law, warning against any complicity in the plundering of the Sahrawi people’s natural resources or the violation of their right to self-determination.
The CASO called, in a statement, on “France and all French public institutions to scrupulously respect international and European law, under penalty of France being directly implicated in complicity in the plundering of Sahrawi resources and the violation of the right to self-determination.”
In this regard, the centre “strongly” denounced the “partial and misleading” treatment by a French public television channel that broadcast a report praising an alleged “spectacular economic development” of the Western Sahara thanks to Moroccan investments.
He recalled, in this context, that Western Sahara is a non-self-governing territory listed by the UN since 1963 on the list of territories to be decolonised.
Morocco, he continued, “exercises no recognised sovereignty there, and its occupation is illegal under international law, as recalled by the International Court of Justice (Advisory Opinion, 1975) and multiple UN resolutions.”
He also highlighted the various decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), notably the rulings of October 4, 2024, invalidating the EU-Morocco trade agreements due to the inclusion of Western Sahara without the consent of the Sahrawi people.
“By committing 150 million euros to projects in occupied Western Sahara, the AFD (French Development Agency) is acting in blatant violation of European law, exposing itself to legal action before European and French courts,” he warned.
The CASO emphasised, in this regard, that “any financing of economic activities in this territory without the agreement of the Polisario Front, the only recognised representative of the Sahrawi people by the UN, is likely to be deemed illegal and may result in sanctions.”