The Organised labour movement in Nigeria is asking the international community to impose economic sanctions on Morocco for continuing to colonise Western Saharan people despite the United Nations’ resolution for their decolonisation.

Professor Ibrahim Gambari, a guest speaker at a forum organised by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, to push for the liberation of the Saharan people also called on the United Nations to back their resolutions on decolonising of Western Sahara with actions.

He stated that the United Nations had in its 1960 General Assembly reached a resolution which recognised the rights to self-rule for Western Sahara people.

Both the NLC and the guest speaker believe that the international community needed to do more to help in liberating Western Sahara.

Referendum To Be Conducted

At the event, the NLC chanted solidarity songs before leaders of the organised labour movements took their turn to give speeches that centred on the liberation of West Sahara.

Some of those at the event were the President of ASSU, Nasir Isa and the President of the NLC, Ayuba Waba.

Although that UN resolution of 1960 asked for a referendum to be conducted, this has not been done 55 years after.

The Saharawi Ambassador to Nigeria, Oubi Bachir, expresses confidence that the call for economic sanctions would liberate his people.

Western Sahara is a disputed territory in the Maghreb region of North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, Mauritania to the east and south and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.

It has been a member of the African Union since 1984.

Since then, the region, which some have referred to as the last African nation to be decolonised, has been asking for international support for its full liberation from Morocco.