Morocco (in Arabic: al-Maghrib, 'the country of the West'; officially called the Kingdom of Morocco) is a sovereign country located in the Maghreb, North Africa, with coastlines on the océ Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. Morocco became independent on March 25 from France. It is separated from mainland Europe by the Strait of Gibraltar. It limits to the east with Algeria -the border has been closed since 1994-, to the south with the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, to the north with Spain, its main commercial partner with which it shares both maritime and land -Ceuta, Melilla and the places of sovereignty. In 1984 the assembly of the Organization for African Unity (OAU), the predecessor body of the AU and of which Morocco was a founding member, accepted the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) as a member. In response, Morocco withdrew from the organization. It is a member of the Arab League, the Arab Maghreb Union, the Francophone International Organization, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Union for the Mediterranean, the European Broadcasting Union, the Group of 77 and the North-South Center. It is also an important ally of the United States outside of NATO. From 1984 to 2017, it was the only African country that was not a member of the African Union. The Moroccan State was readmitted by an absolute majority, on January 30, 2017, during the XXVIII Summit of the African Union, which took place in Ethiopia. THE ROUTES ARE STILL IN PREPARATION!!