Morocco asks to rejoin African Union as seeks backing over Western Sahara

Morocco has asked the African Union (AU) to readmit it to an organisation it left 32 years ago, as it steps up efforts to win support from member states for a plan offering conditional autonomy to the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Morocco abandoned its seat in 1984 when the AU recognised the breakaway Western Sahara republic lobbied for by the Polisario Front independence movement. The AU is a major backer of the Polisario-declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), but Morocco wan