"After checking with our colleagues, we have determined that GE is not participating in the tender that is the subject of your email", stated the GE’s Corporate Ombudsperson’s’ Office on behalf of GE's Board of Directors.

The statement yesterday evening came as a reply to a letter WSRW sent to the company earlier that day. The letter outlined the organisation's concerns on GE's participation in a tender by the Moroccan government to construct five wind farms - two of which were located not in Morocco, but in the occupied territory of Western Sahara; in El Aaiun and in Boujdour.

With GE pulling out, there now remain 15 companies that are contending to win the bid. WSRW has on 2 and 3 July 2013 contacted all of them, asking them to refrain from building infrastructure on occupied land.