After four days of silence, the Polisario finally reacted on Saturday to the opening of the Chadian consulate in Dakhla. In a press release, the Front denounced «a unilateral measure taken by the Chadian government» and called it «an illegal decision that contradicts international and African law, as well as international diplomatic norms and conventions». The Polisario stated that the August 14 inauguration of Chad's diplomatic representation in the Sahara «constitutes a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter and is an illegal decision. In addition to being aggressive, provocative, and unjustified, it also constitutes an attack on the sovereignty of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, undermining its territorial integrity and contravening the principles of the Constitutive Act of the African Union». The separatist movement concluded its communiqué by stressing that it «reserves all political and legal rights to respond to an unjust, shameful, and illegal decision», without detailing the steps it plans to take to get Chad to reverse its August 14 decision. Algeria, for its part, has yet to react. The Algerian government has initiated a dialogue with its Chadian counterpart. The latest meetings between the foreign ministers of the two countries bear witness to this: in October 2023 in Algiers, in February 2024 in Addis Ababa on the sidelines of the African Union summit, and last July in Accra, Ghana, during a session of the AU executive council.
