The Algerian regime relentlessly pursues its agenda hostile to Morocco. Taken aback by the Security Council's adoption of a resolution hailed as historic, enshrining the autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty as the solution to the Western Sahara conflict, it is now attempting to force its way onto the African stage to artificially maintain the notion of a still-unresolved issue. Its tactic has been to exploit the International Conference on the Criminalization of Colonialism in Africa, organized in Algiers, solely to inject its propaganda in favor of the Polisario Front. The initiative, however, originated with the African Union, which decided on this event at the Addis Ababa summit in February 2025.
The conference, held in Algiers on November 30 and December 1 in the presence of diplomatic representatives from across the continent, represents a major step forward in African demands for reparations related to the colonial past. Aligned with the AU's official theme for the year,"Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations," it aims to move from memory to law, working first to classify colonialism, slavery, racial segregation, and apartheid as crimes against humanity, before demanding recognition and reparations.
But Algiers chose to divert the focus of the meeting to the last colony in Africa, a mirage perpetuated by a regime that refuses to admit its diplomatic defeat. The speech delivered on Sunday by Ahmed Attaf, by far the most incompetent of Algeria's foreign ministers, demonstrated this. A long, empty stream of words, laced with aggression, he ultimately revealed the true objective of his speech, and his mission: to attack Morocco and reiterate the Algerian litany on Western Sahara. Yes, it is time to eliminate the vestiges of colonialism in all their dimensions. But it is also incumbent upon us to complete the decolonization process itself, he declared, before adding:To our brothers and sisters in Africa’s last colony, Western Sahara, we express our unwavering solidarity as they strive to assert their legitimate and inalienable right to self-determination, in accordance with international law and the United Nations doctrine on decolonization. The entire maneuver boils down to this: a desire to inscribe the narrative linked to ongoing decolonization processes within the Algiers Declaration, intended to crown the event.
🔴وزير الخارجية الجزائري 🇩🇿 #أحمد_عطاف: الاستـعمار وتصفيته تصفية نهائية وللأشقاء في #الصحراء_الغربية 🇪🇭 كل عبارات الدعم والمصير
— بوابة الجزائر - Algeria Gate (@algatedz) November 30, 2025
Clearly unable to contain his reaction, Ahmed Attaf then brought the Palestinian question into his speech: Likewise, we reaffirm our support for our brothers and sisters in Palestine in Gaza, the West Bank, and Al-Quds Sharif. This paradoxical statement, coming the day after Algeria voted in favor of an American resolution on Gaza, effectively marks Algiers' abandonment of the Palestinian cause it claims to defend.
Attaf speaks as if Africa had delegated its voice to him, while the African Union has completely relinquished control of the Western Sahara issue, entrusting its management exclusively to the UN and its Security Council. The proof lies in the decision adopted at the 31st Ordinary Session of the AU General Assembly, on July 1st and 2nd, 2018 (already!) in Nouakchott. It explicitly states that the organization's role in the search for a solution is limited to renewed support for the efforts led by the UN Secretary-General and his Personal Envoy. It was also on this occasion that an African mechanism was created, based on the AU Troika (outgoing, current, and incoming Chairpersons, as well as the Chairperson of the Commission), tasked with providing effective support to the efforts led by the United Nations, encouraging flexibility among the parties, and considering, in close consultation with the UN, the content of the expected compromise. The decision specifies that the question of Western Sahara will only be addressed within this framework and at this level.
Ironically, this decision was made while Algeria held a seat on the Peace and Security Council, the AU's executive body, a pillar of conflict prevention and management, and the African equivalent of the UN Security Council. Algiers likely never imagined that the UN's decisive body would one day enshrine autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty in a resolution as the sole basis for the Western Sahara conflict. This fateful day for the Algerian regime arrived on October 31, 2025. And the African Union, as specified in Resolution 693 adopted in Nouakchott, is obligated to support UN decisions. And supporting UN decisions means endorsing autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty in the Western Sahara dispute. This is called international law, and the Algerian regime is bound to abide by it, unless it chooses to act outside the law.
According to a reliable source consulted by Le360, Algeria attempted, after the adoption of Resolution 2797, to amend Decision 693 adopted at the 31st Ordinary Session of the AU General Assembly in Nouakchott. Its request was met with a unanimous rejection.
Under the 2018 decision, the African Union must follow the UN's guidance. A continental position in this direction is now only a matter of time. And that is why Algiers is not hesitating to circumvent all legal channels to raise the Western Sahara issue again.
Caught between UN Security Council resolution 2797 and AU decision 693, the Algiers regime has chosen to act against international law, maneuvering to reintroduce the Sahara issue to the AU, but in a new form.
Lacking both legal arguments and leverage, Algiers is now scrambling outside any legal framework to resurrect a closed case, desperately trying to find a loophole to include it within the AU's official theme for the year: Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations. This predicament culminated at the 7th European Union-African Union Summit in Angola, held on November 24 and 25, 2025, in Luanda, where Ahmed Attaf, practically prostrating himself before the UN Secretary-General for a moment of attention, was met with a contemptuous refusal from Guterres. This scene, widely mocked on social media, reveals Algiers' diplomatic nervousness and its obvious failure.
🇩🇿 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. 🤭🤭🤭
Just yesterday, Algeria was claiming allegiance to the UN and the African Union. Today, seeing these two organizations reinforce the preeminence of the Moroccan plan, it is adopting the attitude of a rogue state, incapable of making itself heard except through a charade designed to garner a few embarrassed applause from captive guests, in the literal sense.
The regime is now seeking to circumvent established mechanisms by staging a stunt intended to bring the Western Sahara issue back into the African Union through a back door, by attempting to include the Algiers Declaration on the organization's next summit on the crimes of colonialism, scheduled for February. With its back against the wall, caught between the latest Security Council resolution that definitively buries its ambitions and an African Union expected to align itself with it, Algiers is attempting a veritable hijacking of a crucial initiative, in the foolhardy hope of diverting it to its own advantage.
