Moroccan King Mohammed VI preferred to remain on board his plane on the eve of Morocco’s return to African Union

Media reports revealed Thursday, citing Moroccan diplomatic sources in the Kingdom of Morocco, that King Mohammed VI preferred to remain on board his plane in Addis Ababa all the night instead of lodging at a hotel there, on the sidelines of the AU summit, which was organized at the end of the month of last January in the Ethiopian capital.

This AU summit witnessed the return of Morocco to the African Union, following 32 years of absence, after the decision by late Moroccan Monarch Hassan II to withdraw from the pan-African organization in 1984, after the African Union officially endorsed then the recognition and admission of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).

In a related context, the same sources said, that the Moroccan diplomacy has refused to comment on the incident, by declining to provide any details about the reasons behind the Moroccan King’s move,  at a time when other Moroccan sources suggested that the King didn’t want to travel by night due to adverse weather conditions.

This happens at a time when the King of Morocco expressed his happiness to have secured the return of his country to the African Union, as he declared at the latest AU summit that “Africa is my home”, noting that Mohammed VI had cancelled a planned visit to Mali at the last minute on Tuesday, for reasons the relevant Moroccan authorities refused to disclose.