Morocco’s religious diplomacy in Africa

After years of isolation from the rest of the African continent, Morocco has been trying to raise its political profile in West Africa and the Sahel through the strategic use of religious diplomacy, in part to help counter violent extremism across those regions. The Kingdom has also greatly boosted its economic ties with Sub-Saharan Africa, and is now positioning itself as an entry point to the African continent for Western investors. However, there remain many obstacles to Morocco’s African ambitions, such as the unresolved Western Sahara conflict, rivalry with Algeria, and question marks over the sustainability of the Kingdom's model of democratisation.