Algeria failed to capitalize on the international conference on criminalizing colonialism in Africa, which was hosted by the Algerian capital earlier this week, after its diplomacy failed to include any reference to the Western Sahara conflict in the final “Algiers Declaration.” The Algerian delegation’s persistent efforts during the conference failed to insert the issue into the discussions on historical justice and colonial memory.
The final statement of the conference, in which delegations from the African Union Commission, the Pan-African Parliament, and representatives from the CARICOM region participated, along with experts and academics, emphasized its exclusive focus on issues of colonial legacy and related crimes, without delving into any conflict of a political or regional nature. This approach also contributed to thwarting Algeria’s attempts to exploit the conference to reintroduce its narrative on the fabricated regional conflict related to the Moroccan Sahara.
The “Algiers Declaration” reflected clear choices; it focused on criminalizing colonialism, slavery, forced displacement, and cultural plunder, and called for strengthening mechanisms for reparative justice in Africa, while also commending international efforts to restore the dignity of affected populations. It also highlighted the participants' support for the Palestinian cause within its established framework, without any connection to or allusion to other issues that Algeria attempted to include, which were met with categorical rejection by the participating delegations.
Thus, the conference proceedings concluded without achieving its main objective of including the Sahara conflict in an official document issued by an international and continental forum. The event also revealed the limited influence of Algerian diplomacy within the African Union, in contrast to the increasing continental commitment to the legal frameworks that define the UN Security Council as the exclusive framework for addressing this issue.
Commenting on this issue, Abdel Fattah Belamchi, President of the Moroccan Center for Parallel Diplomacy and Dialogue of Civilizations, said that Algeria is now facing a new reality that limits its ability to push its argument regarding the Sahara conflict, after a renewed international understanding of the Moroccan national position and its political, legal and diplomatic basis has crystallized through the UN Security Council’s recognition of the validity of autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty in its latest resolution No. 2797.
Al-Balmashi added, in a statement to the Hespress electronic newspaper, that the image that Algeria sought to present in the face of the historical and sovereign rights of the Kingdom, especially in its southern provinces, no longer finds the same resonance as it did in the past, given the field and institutional developments that strengthen the Moroccan position.
The same political analyst noted that the momentum that Algeria had been counting on years ago is no longer available today, due to the changing positions of many countries that are no longer willing to engage in direct confrontations with Morocco, especially within international forums dedicated to discussing territories under colonial rule.
The spokesperson added that the countries participating in such meetings prefer to distance themselves from any approach that aims to undermine Morocco’s sovereignty, noting that the recent “Algiers Declaration” clearly reflects this shift, after it avoided addressing the Sahara conflict despite repeated attempts by Algerian diplomacy.
The expert in diplomatic affairs explained that Algerian diplomacy is no longer able to adopt the same traditional methods in confronting Morocco, given the emergence of new and balanced international positions that acknowledge the validity of the Moroccan proposal and the autonomy initiative as a realistic solution.
Al-Balmashi concluded that Algeria is required today, with sufficient political courage, to engage in the new dynamic that the issue is experiencing, and to show a real willingness to negotiate according to the Moroccan initiative as the only framework consistent with regional and international transformations.
For his part, Abdelwahab Elkain, president of the “Africa Watch” organization, confirmed that the international conference on criminalizing colonialism in Africa, which was hosted by Algeria between October 30 and November 1, revealed the limits of the official Algerian discourse, despite its attempts to use this African forum to reach a unified continental position on the historical justice for the peoples of Africa who suffered from slavery, servitude and the crimes of colonialism, noting that “Algeria harnessed huge financial and logistical capabilities to make the work of the conference a success, and opened its high-level sessions with a lengthy speech by its Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf in an attempt to put the attendees in a context that serves its political and strategic orientations.”
Al-Kayne explained, in a statement to Hespress, that Algeria, through Attaf’s speech, sought to reveal the features of a “new strategy” aimed at strengthening its regional and international positioning after a series of setbacks, most notably the failure to join the BRICS group, and the rise in tension with France following its adoption of a more balanced position on the Sahara conflict, as well as the tendency of the international community, headed by the Security Council, towards an approach based on realism and rationality to address outstanding conflicts, which was clearly manifested in Resolution 2797, which confirmed the viability of the Moroccan autonomy initiative as a solution.
He added that the Algerian minister’s speech contained many contradictions; as it brought together historical figures, issues and objectives that were disparate within a single rhetorical framework, in an attempt to portray Algeria as a pivotal power capable of leading decisive political decisions at the continental level, based on the African Union’s slogan for this year on justice for Africans and reparation, noting that “this approach conceals a clear attempt to promote an alleged ‘leading’ role for Algeria in defending liberation causes, even though it lacks a logical consistency that justifies including names, figures and symbols such as Abdelkader Ben Mohieddine alongside Mandela, Lumumba, Cabral, Nkrumah, Bourguiba and others.”
The deputy coordinator of the Sahrawi NGO Alliance highlighted that a number of legitimate questions arise, including why the Sahara conflict was presented over the Palestinian issue in Attaf's speech, as if the former were a marginal or local issue that did not warrant the attention of the participants, or why the tragedies of the Herero and Nama peoples and the genocides in Angola, Mozambique and Madagascar were included in a rhetorical “mixture” that does not correspond to the reality of the issue, stressing that “this rhetorical overlap raises doubt about the sincerity of Algeria’s commitment to liberation issues, and suggests that it is a circumstantial maneuver to serve the Polisario’s arguments and an attempt to influence the political and diplomatic balance within continental and international forums.”
Regarding Algeria’s endeavor, El Kain stated that talking about colonial violations requires, first and foremost, confronting the recent memory of the victims of crimes committed within Algeria itself, especially by the military establishment against citizens who demanded freedom and their political rights, as well as the aspirations of the Kabylie region for justice and recognition of its cultural particularities, noting that “manipulating concepts and trying to exploit the slogan of fighting colonialism has the real goal of floating the provisions contained in Security Council Resolution 2797 and stripping them of their political impact.”
He stated that Algeria’s attempts to reintroduce the Sahara issue into the realms of political and diplomatic rivalry come in the context of the complexity of Moroccan-Algerian relations and the accumulation of tensions based on historical disputes, regional stakes, and expansionist ambitions that drive Algeria to any move that would weaken Morocco, especially after the severing of relations in August 2021 and the escalation of the proxy war through the Polisario Front, in complete disregard for the aspirations of the Sahrawi people for security, peace, and reunification for the past five decades.
In this context, Abdelwahab Elkain considered that the disinformation strategies adopted by the Algerian authorities are nothing but a systematic policy aimed at creating the impression of the existence of “strong” political messages based on the values of liberation, while in reality they aim to manipulate Algerian, African and international public opinion, on an issue that does not exceed in its essence the limits of preserving the territorial integrity of the Kingdom and completing its territorial unity, in contrast to desperate Algerian attempts to insert the decolonization file into a soil that absolutely rejects projects of division and fragmentation.
