![Leaders pose for a family photo before the opening session of the 4th Arab-African Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea on 23 November 2016 [Pool / Egyptian Presidency/Anadolu]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/2016_11_23-Arab-African-Summit-in-Malabo-1.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
November 23, 2016 at 5:15 pm
Eight Arab delegations yesterday withdrew from the Arab-African summit which was due to begin today in Equatorial Guinea.
Withdrawn
- Bahrain
- Morocco
- Oman
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Somalia
- UAE
- Yemen
The delegations said they were withdrawing due to the "insistence of the African Union to involve a delegation from the Western Sahara in the summit".
The withdrawal of the Moroccan delegation came after Moroccan King Mohammed VI led a tour to a number of African countries.
The conflict over the Western Sahara, in southern Morocco, began in 1975 following the end of the Spanish occupation of the North African region.
In 1976, the Polisario unilaterally declared the establishment of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), which was formally recognised by a number of countries.
Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.
Spotted an error on this page? Let us know
Show Comments