“Chad is the latest country to join the list, which continues to grow,” writes “Jeune Afrique”, which believes that “the opening of the Chadian consulate also fits logically into the Atlantic Initiative proposed at the end of 2023 by HM King Mohammed VI, which plans to give the four landlocked countries of the Sahel (Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad) better access to the Atlantic.”
“The city of Dakhla alone now hosts seventeen consulates, which reinforces its dual status as a diplomatic hub and a gateway to Africa thanks to its future port (Dakhla Atlantique), set to be one of the largest in the region,” the French magazine emphasizes.
“Jeune Afrique” recalls that in addition to Chad, the diplomatic quarter of the Pearl of the Atlantic houses the consular representations of French-speaking African countries such as Djibouti (since February 2020), the DRC (December 2020), Senegal (April 2021), Togo (July 2022) and Guinea (July 2023).
The English-speaking, Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking countries of the continent, he continues, “are not left out since the city also hosts diplomatic representations from Gambia (January 2020), Liberia (March 2020), Equatorial Guinea (October 2020), Sierra Leone (August 2021), Guinea-Bissau (October 2021) and Cape Verde (August 2022), as well as those of the two Caribbean states (Haiti since December 2020 and Suriname since May 2022), to which was added that of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (which has 7 member states) in March 2022.
The two southern regions of the Kingdom, adds “Jeune Afrique”, also have twelve other consulates, based in Laayoune.
The city was chosen by countries from French-speaking Africa (Comoros in December 2019, Gabon and Central Africa in January 2020, Ivory Coast and Burundi in February 2020), English-speaking Africa (Zambia and the Kingdom of Eswatini in October 2020, Malawi in July 2021) without forgetting Sao Tome and Principe (Portuguese-speaking) in January 2020, and several Arab States (the United Arab Emirates in November 2020, Bahrain in December 2020 and Jordan in March 2021), notes the magazine, which estimates that the list should grow very soon with the opening of a consulate in Dakhla, representing the Dominican Republic.
2024-08-23 23:41:19