Art, obsession, and identity
The Western Sahara is the most sparsely populated territory in Africa, much of it desert. On the surface, it appears to have no strategic value whatsoever. Yet this little-known land situated on the northwest coast of the continent has been the subject of dispute for nearly 100 years. In fact, over the years, four different countries have laid claim to the region, prompting the Indigenous population to rise up against what it sees as colonial oppression. So what prompted this dispute in the first place, and has the issue been resolved?
Click through and find out why the Western Sahara is so hotly disputed.
Western Sahara is a sparsely-populated territory occupying a desert Atlantic-coastal area of northwest Africa.
Approximately 30% of the territory is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
The remaining 70% is occupied and administered by neighboring Morocco. The Western Sahara itself is composed of the geographic regions of Río de Oro, covering the southern two-thirds of the region (between Cape Blanco and Cape Bojador), and Saguia el-Hamra, occupying the northern third.
The current population of Western Sahara is 600,000. Nearly 40% of inhabitants live in Morocco-controlled Laayoune (El Aaiún), the territory's largest city.
Western Sahara is the most sparsely populated territory in Africa and is virtually all desert. Yet this little-known enclave, which has never been a nation in the modern sense of the word, remains one of the most hotly disputed regions on the continent.
In 1884, the Spanish government claimed a protectorate over the territory, establishing it as a Spanish colony.
Spanish presence centered on Río de Oro Bay. However, raids and rebellions by the indigenous Saharan population hindered expansion inland until the 1930s.
The territory was eventually subdued by joint Spanish and French forces in 1934. Spanish authorities made Dakhla, then known as Villa Cisneros, the capital of the province of Río de Oro and divided their Saharan territories into two regions named after the rivers Saguía el-Hamra and Río de Oro.
During the Second World War, these regions were administered by Spanish Morocco. In October 1950, Francisco Franco visited the territory and granted the Spanish Moroccan people the same privileges as those of Spain.
In 1957, a newly independent Morocco claimed the districts of Saguia el-Hamra in the north and Río de Oro in the south. The move sparked the Ifni War.
The Ifni War took place from November 1957 to June 1958 during a general wave of decolonization after the Second World War. It pitted Franco-Spanish colonial forces against Moroccan insurgents, reorganized as the Moroccan Army of Liberation.
Moroccan forces attempted to liberate the towns of Sidi Ifni and Tarfaya from Spanish occupation. Heavy fighting also took place at El Aaiún and Edchera.
Moroccan militia were eventually overwhelmed and by February 1958 a joint Spanish and French offensive had driven the insurgents out of the region. Spain then joined Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro to create the province of Spanish Sahara. The conflict is often referred to as the "Forgotten War" such was the disinterest demonstrated by Europe and the outside world as to the events unfolding in the region.
Tensions continued to simmer in the region after neighboring Mauritania, which had historical and competing claims of sovereignty over the territory, won its independence and voiced grievances that it too had been separated from its lands by European colonial powers.
The discovery in 1963 of huge phosphate deposits at Bu Craa in the northern portion of the Spanish Sahara suddenly made the province even more economically attractive for any country that could firmly establish possession of it. Mining operations commenced in 1972.
The early 1970s saw a tangible increase in national consciousness and anticolonial sentiment across the province. The region's indigenous inhabitants, the nomadic Sahrawis, drew together to form the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro, or the Polisario Front.
The Polisario Front launched its first raids against Spanish occupiers in 1973. Its aim was to establish a Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic for the Sahrawi people through the means of self-determination and armed resistance.
Then in 1975, the Spanish decided to allow Mauritania and Morocco to partition and occupy the territory. This led to the so-called Green March.
The Green March was a strategic mass demonstration called for by King Hassan II of Morocco that saw around 350,000 unarmed Moroccans peacefully occupy the Spanish Sahara. The protest was meant to force Spain to hand over the disputed, autonomous territory.
Instead, it triggered further conflict when the Polisario Front waged a war to drive out Moroccan and Mauritian forces.
Spain's eventual partitioning of the province saw Morocco gain the northern two-thirds of the area and, consequently, control over the phosphates; Mauritania gained the southern third. The call to arms by Polisario was swift.
The Polisario Front was supported by Algeria and based in the country's capital, Algiers.
Spain found itself in the middle of three opposing forces and in 1975 signed a tripartite agreement with Morocco and Mauritania as it moved to transfer the territory.
Mauritania, a poor and impoverished nation, bowed out of the fighting and reached a peace agreement with the Polisario Front in 1979. Pictured is the then-Polisario Front leader Bachir Mustapha Sayed and Lieutenant Ahmed Salem Ould Sidi for Mauritania, signing the treaty on August 5, 1979, in Algiers.
Morocco, however, resisted any notion of peace. It immediately annexed Mauritania's portion of Western Sahara and fortified its positions in and around the Bu Craa mines. Polisario Front guerrillas, meanwhile, continued their raids.
On February 26, 1976, Spain's formal mandate over the province ended when it handed administrative power to Morocco in a ceremony in Laayoune. Spanish Sahara was now known as Western Sahara.
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) was subsequently declared by the Polisario Front that same year.
In 1988, a peace proposal drawn up by the United Nations saw the two parties agree on a ceasefire. The proposal also called on the holding of a referendum to enable the people of Western Sahara to choose between independence and integration with Morocco. Pictured is Brahim Ghali, the current Polisario secretary general and president of the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arabic Democratic Republic.
In 1991, the ceasefire was implemented. The pause in hostilities allowed a UN administrative and peacekeeping force to enter Western Sahara to conduct the referendum.
However, just as the UN was preparing the referendum, Morocco moved tens of thousands of "settlers" into the territory and insisted that they have their voting qualifications assessed. The delaying tactic worked.
While the 16-year-long insurgency ended with the UN-brokered truce in 1991, the promise of a referendum on independence has still yet to take place.
In November 2020, the ceasefire between the Polisario Front and Morocco broke down, leading to armed clashes between both sides. As of 2025, sovereignty over Western Sahara is still contested between Morocco and the Polisario Front, and its legal status remains unresolved.
Sources: (Security Council Report) (BBC) (Arab Center Washington DC) (World Population Review)
See also: What is the African Union and why is it important?
Why is the Western Sahara so hotly disputed?
A little-known region in northwestern Africa is the subject of a long-running territorial dispute
LIFESTYLE Geopolitics
The Western Sahara is the most sparsely populated territory in Africa, much of it desert. On the surface, it appears to have no strategic value whatsoever. Yet this little-known land situated on the northwest coast of the continent has been the subject of dispute for nearly 100 years. In fact, over the years, four different countries have laid claim to the region, prompting the Indigenous population to rise up against what it sees as colonial oppression. So what prompted this dispute in the first place, and has the issue been resolved?
Click through and find out why the Western Sahara is so hotly disputed.