The Polisario has chosen to ignore the contribution of the OPEC Fund for International Development to the financing of part of the second phase of the detailed preliminary studies of the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project. The financial contribution of Algeria to the said Fund is the direct cause of this silence, since it is a founding member of the OPEC Fund, the creation of which was proclaimed at the conference of Heads of State of the Organization oil-exporting countries, organized in March 1976 in Algiers.
On the other hand, the separatist movement was very critical with the Australian engineering firm WorleyParsonswhich won the contract to carry out the preliminary technical studies for the gas pipeline project that will link the kingdom to Nigeria by sea.
The “Sahrawi Petroleum and Mining Authority” invites the Australian company and the other foreign companies linked to the Moroccan-Nigerian gas project “to abandon their activities and investments in Western Sahara”.
The Polisario also informed “the African Union of the dangers of such activities taking place in the territories of AU member states and therefore calls on it to assume its responsibilities in the defense of the sovereignty and wealth of its states. members, in accordance with the provisions of the founding charter of the African Union and its fundamental law”, indicates the same authority in a press release.
If the Polisario has forgotten to point out the financial contribution of the OPEC Fund for international development, it has shot arrows in the direction of the Islamic Development Bank (ISBD), which contributes up to 50% of the necessary sum ($90.1 million) for the completion of the 2nd phase of the technical preliminary design for the Morocco-Nigeria gas pipeline.
As a reminder, the Polisario had already opted for silence, the day following the announcement, in November 2020, of the signing of a new Moroccan-Russian fishing agreementincorporating the waters of Western Sahara.