During the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit on August 17 in Madagascar, the organization reaffirmed its commitment to the memorandum of understanding signed on April 2 with the Polisario. «The Summit reiterated its solidarity with the people of Western Sahara in their quest for self-determination. In this regard, it welcomed the signing of the agreement between the SADC and Western Sahara/Democratic Sahrawi Arab Republic (RASD)», stated paragraph 15 of the joint communiqué. The summit also underscored «the complementarity of the United Nations-led process for the self-determination of Western Sahara» and stressed the importance of aligning the implementation of the SADC-RASD protocol with the efforts of both the United Nations and the African Union. This position echoes the communiqué from the SADC foreign ministers' meeting held on July 24 and 25 in Tanzania. On April 2, Elias M. Magosi, Secretary-General of the SADC, and Bah El Mad Abdellah, Polisario's representative in Botswana, signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at «realizing the decisions adopted by the SADC heads of state and government in August 2019, as well as the Declaration on the SADC Solidarity Conference with the RASD held in March 2019 in Pretoria, South Africa». However, this agreement faced immediate condemnation from Malawi, the Union of Comoros, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Eswatini. These nations are seeking to distance themselves from South African influence, having recognized Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara by establishing consulates in Laâyoune or Dakhla. This renewed support from the SADC comes just three weeks after a meeting on July 27 in South Africa, held on the sidelines of the «summit of liberation movements», between the Polisario representative and the presidents of South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique.
