Morocco has decided not to attend Africa-Japan Summit in Tunisia

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Morocco recalled its ambassador to Tunisia for consultations on Friday after Tunisian President Kais Saied received the head of the Western Sahara independence movement, the Polisario Front.

Morocco said Tunisia’s decision to invite the Polisario head to a Japanese development summit for Africa that Tunis is hosting this weekend had “deeply hurt the feelings of the Moroccan people.”

Morocco has also decided to not attend the summit.

Japan to pledge around $30 bln in African aid at conference – Sankei

Japan is set to promise some $30 billion in aid for African development at a conference to beheld in Tunisia this weekend, the Sankei Shimbun daily reported on Friday.

The aid, which will centre around developing human resources in order to promote economic growth, will be announced at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who will be taking part in the conference online since he is recovering from COVID-19, the paper added.

The government was not immediately available for comment on the report.

Other topics will include food security for African in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as climate change and the promotion of environmentally friendly businesses, a Japanese foreign ministry official said on Wednesday.

The eighth TICAD is the first since 2019 and only the second held in Africa. It is co-hosted with the United Nations, the World Bank and the African Union Commission.