Western Sahara
Western Sahara is a disputed territory located on the Atlantic coast of northwest Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, and Mauritania to the east and south. The territory has been a focal point of conflict since Spain relinquished its colonial claims in 1976, leading to a power struggle primarily between the Polisario Front, which advocates for Sahrawi independence, and Morocco, which claims sovereignty over the region. A cease-fire brokered by the United Nations in 1991 established a tenuous peace, with Morocco controlling most of the territory and the Polisario Front governing a smaller area. The United Nations has attempted to mediate the conflict through negotiations, which resumed in 2018, yet progress has been limited.
The population of Western Sahara is complex, with the indigenous Sahrawi people traditionally inhabiting the region, but significant numbers of Moroccan settlers have also moved to the territory over the years. As of 2022, the UN estimated the population at around 565,000. Despite various international recognitions of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, many countries, including the United States and France, support Morocco's claims. The situation remains sensitive, reflecting broader geopolitical interests and historical grievances, making Western Sahara a contentious topic with diverse perspectives on its future.
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Western Sahara
Summary: The territory of Western Sahara (recognized as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic by some countries) lies on the Atlantic coast of northwest Africa immediately southwest of Morocco. It has been the site of a conflict between the Polisario Front, demanding independence, and Morocco, which occupied the territory in 1979, three years after Spain gave up its colonial claim and after Mauritania abandoned its claim to the southern third. A 1991 cease-fire led to the Moroccan administration of most of the region, with about one-third under Polisario control. However, tensions remained high. The United Nations-brokered negotiations concerning the territory's future reopened in 2018 and continued through the early 2020s.
Territory: Western Sahara, in northwest Africa. Western Sahara borders the Atlantic Ocean and lies south-southwest of Morocco. It shares a short (twenty-six miles, forty-two kilometers) border with Algeria on its northeast and a much longer border (969 miles, 1,561 km.) with Mauritania on its east and south. The territory's 102,700 square miles (266,000 sq. km.) is about the same as Colorado and 10 percent larger than Great Britain. It is comprised mostly of low, flat desert, with small mountains in the south and northeast.
People: Sahrawi is the tribal name of the nomadic people who traditionally have claimed the territory of Western Sahara as their home. Accurate population statistics are scarce due to the conflict and disputed administration of the region. The area's population in 2006 was estimated at 273,000. According to some estimates, by that time, immigrants from Morocco (or their children) comprised a majority after three decades of policies encouraging Moroccan nationals to move to the territory. (This figure did not include an estimated 100,000 West Saharan refugees living in camps in Algeria.) By 2022, the United Nations estimated the population to be 565,000.
Status: Authority over Western Sahara has long been disputed. In 1976, after three years of warfare with guerrillas claiming independence and months after about 300,000 Moroccans entered the territory, Spain surrendered its claim, dividing the province between Morocco and Mauritania. Continued guerrilla warfare resulted in Mauritania surrendering its claim in 1979, at which point Morocco claimed the entire territory. In the meantime, the Polisario Front had proclaimed independence. Various countries, almost all in Africa or Latin America, eventually recognized the sovereignty of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, though some subsequently either froze relations or withdrew recognition altogether. Other countries, including the United States and former regional colonial power France, generally supported Morocco. The United Nations, which officially oversaw a cease-fire between rebels and the government of Morocco in 1991, regards the status of Western Sahara as awaiting the outcome of a truce. Morocco has offered to make Western Sahara quasi-autonomous but under Moroccan sovereignty. Negotiations were reopened in 2018. In exchange for Morocco establishing ties with Israel in 2020, the United States officially recognized Morocco's claim to the entire Western Sahara territory.
Key Players
- Polisario Front (Frente Popular Para la Liberacion de Saguia El Hamra y Rio de Oro; Frente Polisar): claims independence for Western Sahara (since 1976) as the independent Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Fought guerrilla warfare against the government of Morocco until the 1991 cease-fire. Recognized as a legitimate power by some countries in Africa and Latin America.
- Government of Morocco: occupied part of Western Sahara at the invitation of Spain (former colonial power) in 1976 and expanded its claim to the entire territory when Mauritania withdrew in 1979.
- Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb: North African regional affiliate of the al-Qaeda terrorist group. Extremists increased their influence in the region in the 2010s.
History
From 1884 to 1934, Western Sahara was a colony of Spain. In 1934, it became an overseas province. In the 1960s, the nomadic people known as Saharans, or Sahrawis, settled in the region. A new wave of nationalism emerged among this group, especially ethnic Sahrawi university students at Muhammad V University in Morocco, who joined veterans of the 1950s-era Movement for the Liberation of the Sahara. These two groups formed the Polisario Front in 1973. Their initial aim was independence from Spain, to be achieved via guerrilla warfare waged from camps in Mauritania. The fighting sent as many as 200,000 Sahrawis fleeing to refugee camps in far-southwestern Algeria, where harsh conditions include summer daytime temperatures of over 135 degrees Farenheight, winter temperatures below freezing, and sudden sandstorms, called siroccos that can wipe out tents.
In an early success for Polisario, the International Court of Justice in October 1975 rejected claims by Morocco and Mauritania to the region and recognized the right to self-determination for the Sahrawis. Spain agreed to a referendum. But the next month, November 1975, Morocco's King Hassan II sent 300,000 Moroccans into the territory. Spain signed the "Madrid Agreement" on November 14, 1975, dividing the territory between Morocco (the northern two-thirds) and Mauritania (the southern third). The agreement ended Spanish rule but also left no independent role for Sahrawis.
Subsequently, in February 1976, Polisario declared independence for the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic and announced a government in March 1976 led by President Mohamed Abdelaziz. The Sahrawis were supported by Algeria, which shares a forty-five-mile border with Western Sahara. Polisario moved its headquarters to Tindouf, the westernmost town in Algeria, in 1975.
Polisario Front guerrillas raided Moroccan and Mauritanian installations inside the territory from 1975 to 1978. Raids were also carried out on Mauritania's capital, Nouakchott. Mauritania abandoned its claims to the southern third of the territory in 1979 when Morocco moved to extend its claim and control to the entire area. Polisario guerrillas, once numbering as many as 15,000, continued to attack Moroccan forces from bases in Algeria over the next 15 years, during which the independent state was recognized by some other countries, mostly in Africa and South America. The number of states recognizing the government of the SADR rose and fell according to varying diplomatic circumstances.
A relatively low-level guerrilla war continued for fifteen years until 1991, when the United Nations brokered a cease-fire, which included a plebiscite over the territory's future—independence or continued affiliation with Morocco. The UN Mission for a Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) was established to monitor the ceasefire and implement the referendum. However, over the following decades, Polisario and Morocco could not agree on the terms of the plebiscite. The principal area of difference was whether Moroccans who had moved into Western Sahara, encouraged by Moroccan government economic development programs, would be eligible to vote. By 2010, the nomadic Sahrawis comprised less than 40 percent of the population.
A further complication was the close tie between Polisario and Algeria. Some observers said an independent SADR would almost entirely depend on Algeria. Analysts also suggested Algeria would like a "back door" to the Atlantic Ocean through an independent Western Sahara.
The United Nations made repeated efforts to settle the dispute, two of which were led by former US Secretary of State James Baker in 1997 and again in 2000. Acting as a 2001 special UN envoy, Baker proposed a five-year plan in which Western Sahara would be an autonomous region of Morocco, followed by a plebiscite. The Polisario government-in-exile initially rejected Baker's proposal but agreed to the plan in 2003 after two years of negotiations. Morocco rejected it. In 2004, the United Nations Security Council voted to reaffirm the 1991 cease-fire agreement, including a referendum.
In 2007, Morocco made a new proposal to break the impasse: limited autonomy for the Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty. Western Sahara would have a parliament, a chief of state, a cabinet, and a judiciary system to oversee life inside the territory. The regional government would manage education, tourism, and social services. The proposed parliament could not pass laws contrary to Moroccan law, and Morocco would control foreign relations, defense, finance, and borders. The Polisario Front rejected the suggestion, insisting that only a popular vote on whether to gain complete independence would be acceptable. The two sides began occasional negotiations under United Nations auspices, but little progress was reported.
On September 21, 2010, the Polisario militia arrested the Front's leading security official, Mustapha Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud, upon his return to their Tindouf camp in Algeria after visiting Mauritania. The month before, he had endorsed the Moroccan autonomy proposal.
In October 2010, several thousand Sahrawis gathered in Gadaym Izik, near Laayoune—some reports said the demonstrations were the largest since Morocco took effective control of the territory—to demonstrate for economic resources and a voice in how to exploit their territory's resources. In early November 2010, fighting erupted between Moroccan police and people in the camp. Polisario spokespeople initially blamed the fighting on police and said 4,500 people were injured. Later, Western news reports said it had been members of the camp who attacked police first.
In January 2011, Morocco said it had arrested more than two dozen members of the terrorist group al-Qaeda of the Islamic Mahgreb who were plotting violent robberies in Morocco to finance their activities. This was the first reported presence of the Algeria-based group in Western Sahara.
UN-led negotiations to end the Morocco-Polisario conflict entered a new phase beginning in late 2018. A growing number of countries increasingly supported the Moroccan administration of Western Sahara. Notably, in 2020, the United States formally recognized Morocco's claim to the entire territory as part of a deal in which Morocco normalized its relations with Israel. In exchange, Israel recognized Morocco's sovereignty in 2023. In 2021, however, the UN renewed its peacekeeping activities in the region as conflict prevailed between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front.
Bibliography
Jacobs, Anna. "How the Western Sahara Became the Key to North Africa." Foreign Policy, 18 Dec. 2020, foreignpolicy.com/2020/12/18/how-the-western-sahara-became-the-key-to-north-africa. Accessed 5 Oct. 2023.
"UN Renews Peacekeeping Mission in Western Sahara, Calls for Talks." Al Jazeera, 29 Oct. 2021, www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/29/un-renews-peacekeeping-mission-in-western-sahara-calls-for-talks. Accessed 5 Oct. 2023.
"Western Sahara Conflict in 500 Words." Al Jazeera, 11 Dec. 2020, www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/11/western-sahara-conflict-in-500-words. Accessed 12 Mar. 2021.
"Western Sahara Profile." BBC News, 31 Jan. 2023, www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14115273. Accessed 5 Oct. 2023.