Completely isolated on the international stage regarding the Western Sahara issue, especially since Security Council Resolution 2797, which enshrines the Moroccan autonomy plan as the only viable solution, Algeria is determined to revive the issue within the African Union. In vain: the failure is constant. Two events organized in quick succession in Algiers under the auspices of the AU are proof of this. The regime saw them as an opportunity to advance its agenda and attempt, once again, to present the Western Sahara as Africa's last colony. At each event: red carpet, royal protocol in Algiers' luxury hotels, lyrical pronouncements from Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf, a series of bilateral meetings, and charm offensives to garner support. And yet, each attempt ends in resounding failure. It is impossible to force the artificial return of the Sahara issue to the African agenda, given that the AU officially relinquished it in 2018 in exclusive favor of the UN.
Act I. On November 30 and December 1, Algiers attempted to politically hijack the International Conference on the Criminalization of Colonialism in Africa, a conference conceived by the African Union (AU) to advance African demands for reparations. Taking advantage of an event hosted on its own soil, the regime sought to insert into the Algiers Declaration a narrative equating the Sahara with Africa's last colony, hoping to force its return to a pan-African framework. Ahmed Attaf's aggressive speech, focused on the Sahara and completely disconnected from the conference's actual mandate, exposed the maneuver. The objective was to circumvent AU Resolution 693, adopted in Nouakchott in 2018, which confines the organization to a supporting role for the UN and prohibits any handling of the issue outside the restricted mechanism of the Troika.
But Algiers' maneuver quickly backfired. This attempt to reopen an institutional loophole to revive its activism met with unanimous rejection within the AU. The Algiers Declaration, adopted at the end of the conference, establishes a continental framework exclusively dedicated to memory, truth, and justice. Not the slightest mention of the Western Sahara issue, not even remotely.
The text remains strictly focused on colonial crimes and their legacy. The Declaration notably recommends designating November 30th as African Day in tribute to the victims of the transatlantic slave trade, colonialism, and apartheid, in order to permanently enshrine the memory of the suffering inflicted upon the peoples of the continent. It then urges former colonial powers to publicly acknowledge the crimes committed and to fully assume their historical responsibilities. The Declaration also advocates a continental audit to measure the economic impact of the colonial system, a first step toward a reparations strategy that includes the restitution of stolen wealth, debt cancellation, and equitable financing for development. Finally, it demands a thorough reform of the global financial architecture to guarantee African states genuine decision-making power within international institutions and fairer access to financing.
Naksa
It goes without saying that, given the magnitude of the issues at stake, a band of mercenaries mobilized in the service of Algiers had no legitimacy whatsoever to insert themselves into the debate. The Declaration contains no provision, no allusion, not even the slightest formulation that would link it to the Western Sahara issue, clear proof that it falls outside the theme, scope, and spirit of the adopted text. This episode only confirmed the regime's isolation, already highlighted by the UN Secretary-General's icy indifference towards Ahmed Attaf at the EU-AU summit in Luanda, a scene that went viral.
🇩🇿 Attaf: Ci vou pli le Sahara ni pas Maroucaine.
— Moorish darknight 🦇 (@Jones1535898) November 26, 2025
🇺🇳 Guterres: shut your mouth, get me a coffee, you child of a paratrooper. 🤭🤭🤭
Act II. With its back against the wall, Algiers attempted another diplomatic maneuver to force a mention of the Sahara. This time, it was during the 12th High-Level Seminar on Peace and Security in Africa, also held in Algiers on December 1st and 2nd. But the attempt met with a categorical NO, particularly from the presidency of the Peace and Security Council, the executive body of the African Union, held in December by Côte d'Ivoire. Leading the proceedings, the Ivorian Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Integration, and Ivorians Abroad, Léon Kacou Adom, distinguished himself by impeccable firmness, unequivocally refusing to allow any reference to the Sahara to appear in the seminar's final communiqué.
All this took place under the approving gaze of the African Union Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Bankole Adeoye (Nigeria).
It wasn't for lack of trying, however. Algiers took advantage of the Seminar, which became the Oran Process in its own version, to attempt, once again, to re-engage the African Union in the Western Sahara issue, seeking to disguise its separatist position as a supposed continental stance. Through numerous bilateral meetings and charm offensives, Ahmed Attaf strove to revive an African role in an issue that, for decades, has fallen exclusively under the purview of the UN. But to no avail: both the African Union Commission and the Peace and Security Council remained inflexible.
This consistency deprives Algiers of the institutional support it hoped to secure once again. The seminar concluded without any final communiqué, a clear sign of the regime's inability to impose its agenda and the complete lack of consensus surrounding the vision it was attempting to promote. Even on its own turf, Algerian diplomacy has thus suffered another setback. Neither the lavish welcome, nor the mobilization of the capital's few five-star establishments, nor the extravagant expenditures at the taxpayers' expense succeeded in swaying the decision.
This move comes at a particularly unfavorable diplomatic time for Algiers, as international support for the Polisario Front has dwindled dramatically, becoming a heavy burden for the Algerian regime. At the same time, the Moroccan autonomy plan is gaining ground and legitimacy, as evidenced by Security Council Resolution 2797. Attempts to exploit the Western Sahara issue in the name of African sovereignty have definitively destroyed any influence Algiers may have had, including on the continent, once considered its exclusive domain.
The African Union now unequivocally aligns itself with the UN process, recognizing the Moroccan autonomy plan as the only credible path to a lasting solution. Attempts to transform major continental issues into exclusive platforms for the separatist agenda have resulted in utter failure. Limited to sterile media hype, these efforts are colliding with harsh reality. To such an extent that, even within the regime and among its proxies, there is now talk of Naksa, a debacle in the face of which the regime now has only one recourse: denial.
