Tags : Eva Kaili, Maddalena Kaili, Moroccogate, Qatargate, Maroc, DGED, Parlement Européen, Antonio Panzeri, Francesco Giorgi, Marocleaks, Mohamed Belahrach, Fight Impunity, No peace without justice, corruption,
Morocco is a protagonist in what has been called the European Parliament’s biggest political scandal. Its fraudulent and corrupt practices are making headlines in the old continent. The kingdom’s aim is to realise its dream of fully exercising its so-called sovereignty over the territory of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony invaded by the Moroccan army in 1975.
Europeans have railed against Moroccan corruption and interference. Will Africans do the same? Nothing is less certain, as corruption and fraud are so ingrained in the brains of African leaders. For crumbs.
Indeed, if to gain their support, Morocco offered bags containing millions, Africans complied with a little pocket money. Let us recall the 5000 euros distributed by a Moroccan diplomat to the ambassadors of some thirty countries in Addis Ababa. The same diplomat proposed to give 1500 dollars to the former head of cabinet of Mrs Zuma when she was head of the African Commission, the Burkinabe Jean-Baptiste Natama.
Rabat aims to impose the fait accompli of its occupation of Western Sahara. For this, its weapon is what it has called « phosphate diplomacy », the main Sahrawi natural resource used by Morocco to bribe African countries like Ethiopia. According to media reports, OCP (the Moroccan state phosphate company) has built a $3.7 billion fertiliser plant in the country of the great Haile Selassie.
Clearly, the economic agreements with these countries involve ulterior motives to increase Morocco’s influence in its campaign to undermine the Saharawi people’s aspirations for self-determination. Morocco is waging a similar campaign internationally and in the halls of the US Congress by hiring expensive lobbyists and public relations firms.
In its strategy, the kingdom of Mohammed VI can count on France and its weight in Africa. Thus, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, CAR, etc., under pressure from France, have joined the battle against the principles of the African Union, notably the principle of the intangibility of borders inherited from colonialism.
Africa is committed to maintaining colonial borders, drawn arbitrarily in the 19th and 20th centuries after the collapse of European colonialism. This commitment was not made because these borders made sense: borders rarely conformed to ethnic geographic homelands or previous historical delimitations. The pros and cons of this can be debated, but Africa took the decision in Cairo in 1964 to retain these borders in order to avoid a disruptive and never-ending conflict in trying to reorganise colonial borders to fit linguistic or ethnic groups. For better or for worse, this was decided with the Cairo resolution (AHG/Res. 16(I)). Nevertheless, Morocco chooses to violate this resolution by invading Western Sahara.
Confidential documents of Moroccan diplomacy revealing cases of corruption in Africa:
In Senegal, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Mankeur Ndiaye got used to going through the Moroccan Embassy in Dakar every year to receive more than 8 million FCFA.
In Guinea-Bissau:
The 5000 euros given to the ambassadors of 30 African countries:
Source : Marocleaks, 25/12/2022
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