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After 32 Years of Separation, Morocco Wants to Join African Union Again

Moroccan King Mohammed VI

Moroccan King Mohammed VI

Moroccan King Mohammed VI has announced that his country wants to rejoin the African Union, 32 years after quitting the bloc in protest at its decision to accept Western Sahara as a member.

“For a long time our friends have been asking us to return to them, so that Morocco can take up its natural place within its institutional family. The moment has now come,” the clearly delusional monarch said in a message sent to an AU summit taking place in Kigali on Sunday, the MAP Moroccan news agency reported.

Morocco quit the grouping in protest in 1984 when the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic was admitted as a member.

But although Morocco left the club, “It never quit Africa,” King Mohammed said in his message to AU leaders as they began a two-day meeting in the Rwandan capital.

Morocco has occupied the sparsely populated Western Sahara area since 1975 in a move that was not recognized by the international community.

It maintains that Western Sahara is an integral part of the kingdom even though local Sahrawi people have long campaigned for the right to self-determination.

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