The Deputy Permanent Representative of Sierra Leone to the UN, Ambassador Amara Sowa, indicated that his country supports the Autonomy plan which the Security Council deemed as serious and credible in its successive resolutions since 2007.

The diplomat also welcomed the socio-economic and infrastructural development underway in the southern provinces of the Kingdom, stressing that this dynamic has favored the empowerment of local populations and the improvement of indices of human development in the region.

He further hailed the participation in this seminar of the democratically-elected representatives of the Moroccan Sahara.

Amara Sowa also expressed his country's unwavering support for the political process carried out under the aegis of the UN Secretary-General, with the facilitation of his Personal Envoy for the Moroccan Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, aimed at achieving to a realistic, pragmatic, lasting, mutually acceptable and compromise political solution.

He further stressed that Sierra Leone supports the resumption of the round table process in the same format and with the same participants, in accordance with Security Council Resolution 2703, considering that this process will improve communication and will lead to a peaceful settlement of this regional dispute.

The deputy permanent representative of Sierra Leone to the UN also praised the role of the regional commissions of the National Human Rights Council in Laayoune and Dakhla, as well as Morocco's interaction with the special procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council, as highlighted in Security Council Resolution 2703.

Referring to the humanitarian situation in the Tindouf camps in southwest Algeria, the diplomat called for the registration and census of the populations of these camps.

He also expressed his country's support for MINURSO and its contribution to the creation and maintenance of calm and stability in the region, emphasizing the need to continue to support the Mission in its mandate to monitor the ceasefire, as provided for in Security Council resolution 2703.

He also called for respect for the ceasefire agreement, noting that any renunciation of this agreement is a violation of the resolutions adopted by the Security Council and an obstacle to the resumption of the political process.

The diplomat invited all parties to engage in good faith and in a spirit of compromise in the current political process.