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| Ifni War | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of thedecolonisation of Africa | |||||||||
 Borders of theIfni territory before and after the war. | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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| ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
 Francisco Franco |  Ben Hammu | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
15,300 men
| 30,000 men[8] | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 190 dead 500 wounded 80 missing[7] | 800–1,000 dead[7] | ||||||||
| 7 civilian deaths | |||||||||
| Part of a series on the |
| Western Sahara conflict |
|---|
 |
| Background |
| Regions |
| Politics |
| Clashes |
| Issues |
| Peace process |
TheIfni War, sometimes called theForgotten War (la Guerra Olvidada) inSpain, was a series of armed incursions intoSpanish West Africa byMoroccan insurgents that began in November 1957 and culminated with the abortive siege ofSidi Ifni.
The city of Sidi Ifni had been ceded to theSpanish Empire in 1860 at the end of theHispano-Moroccan War. After Morocco achieved independence in 1956, it sought to claim Spain's remaining possessions in West Africa. Violent demonstrations against Spanish rule broke out in Ifni in April 1957, and in October Moroccan militias began converging near the territory. Moroccan forces attacked in November, forcing the Spanish to abandon most of the territory and retreat to a defensive perimeter around Ifni. Supplied by theSpanish Navy from the sea, the Spanish garrison was able to resist the siege, which lasted into June 1958. InSpanish Sahara, Moroccan units, now reorganised as theMoroccan Army of Liberation, engaged in heavy fighting with Spanish forces atEl Aaiún and Edchera. By February 1958, a joint Spanish and French offensive had driven the Moroccans out of Spanish Sahara.
Hostilities ceased in April 1958 (although small skirmishes still occurred) with theTreaty of Angra de Cintra, signed by the Spanish and Moroccan governments, by whichCape Juby and most of the Ifni territory were transferred to Morocco. The city of Sidi Ifni remained in Spanish possession until 1969, when, under international pressure, it was relinquished to Morocco.
Morocco ceded the city ofSidi Ifni to theSpanish Empire at the conclusion of theHispano–Moroccan War in 1860 under theTreaty of Wad Ras, but Spain did not occupy the city until 1934.[9] The following decades ofFranco-Spanish collaboration resulted in the establishment and extension of theSpanish protectorate in Morocco south of the city toCape Juby. In 1946, Spain's coastal and inland colonies were consolidated asSpanish West Africa.
When Morocco regained independence fromFrance and Spain in 1956, the country expressed a keen interest in all of Spain’s remaining colonial possessions in Morocco,claiming that they were historically and geographically all part of Moroccan territory.Sultan Mohammed V encouraged efforts to re-capture the land and personally funded anti-Spanishguerillas to claim Ifni back for Morocco.[10]
Violent demonstrations against Spanish rule erupted in Ifni on 10 April 1957, followed by civil strife and widespread killings of those loyal to Spain. In response, Spanish dictatorFrancisco Franco dispatched twobattalions of theSpanish Legion, Spain's elite fighting force, toEl Aaiún inSaguia el-Hamra in June.
Spanish military mobilisation resulted in theRoyal Moroccan Army converging near Ifni. On 23 November 1957,[1][11] two villages on the outskirts of Sidi Ifni,Goulimine andBouizakarne, were occupied by 1,500 Moroccan soldiers (Moujahidine).
The encirclement of Ifni was the beginning of the Ifni War. Two more Legion battalions reachedSpanish Sahara before the opening of hostilities.
On 21 November, Spanish intelligence in Ifni reported that attacks were imminent by Moroccans and local tribes operating out ofTafraout. Two days later, Spanish lines of communication were cut, and a force of 2,000 Moroccans stormed Spanish garrisons and armories in and around Ifni.
Although the Spaniards repulsed the Moroccan drive into Sidi Ifni, two nearby Spanish outposts were abandoned in the face of Moroccan attacks and many others remained under heavy siege.
AtTiliuín [es], 60Tiradores de Ifni (locally recruited indigenous infantry with Spanish officers and specialist personnel) struggled to hold off a force of several hundred Moroccans. On 25 November, a relief attempt was authorised. FiveCASA 2.111 bombers (Spanish-built variants of theHeinkel He 111) bombed enemy positions, while an equal number ofCASA 352 transports (Spanish-built versions of theJunkers Ju 52/3m) dropped a force of 75paratroopers into the outpost. The following months saw Spanish troops retreat from the territory to a defensive perimeter around Sidi Ifni.[12]
On 3 December, soldiers of the Spanish Legion's 6thBattalion (VIBandera) arrived, breaking the siege and retaking the airfield. All military and civilian personnel were then evacuated overland to Sidi Ifni.
The relief of Telata was less successful. Leaving Sidi Ifni on 24 November aboard several old trucks, aplatoon of the Spanish Legionparatroop battalion underCaptain Ortiz de Zárate made slow progress through difficult terrain. This problem was compounded by frequent Moroccan ambushes, which by the next day had left several men wounded and forced the Spaniards off the road. On 26 November, food ran out. The Spanish, low on ammunition, resumed their advance, only to dig in again in the face of repeated enemy attacks.
The Spanish dropped rations by air, but Spanish casualties continued to mount. One of the dead was Ortiz de Zárate. On 2 December, a column ofinfantry, among them the erstwhile defenders of Telata, broke through the Moroccan lines and managed to escape encirclement. The survivors of the paratroop detachment reached Sidi Ifni once more on 5 December. Thecompany had suffered two dead and fourteen wounded.
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Initial Moroccan and local tribal attacks had been generally successful. In the space of afortnight, the Moroccans and their tribal allies had asserted control over most of Ifni, isolating inland Spanish units from the capital. Simultaneous attacks had been launched throughoutSpanish Sahara, overrunning garrisons and ambushing convoys and patrols.
Consequently, Moroccan units, resupplied and greatly reinforced, tried to surround and besiege Sidi Ifni, hoping to incite a popular uprising. However, the Moroccans underestimated the strength of the Spanish defences. Supplied from the sea by theSpanish Navy and protected by kilometres oftrenches and forward outposts, Sidi Ifni, boasting 7,500 defenders by 9 December, proved impregnable. The siege, lasting into June 1958, was uneventful and relatively bloodless, as Spain and Morocco both concentrated resources onSaharan theatres.
In January 1958, Morocco redoubled its commitment to the Spanish campaign, reorganising allMoroccan Army units in Spanish territory as the "Saharan Liberation Army".
On 12 January, a division of the Saharan Liberation Army attacked the Spanish garrison atEl Aaiún. Beaten back and forced into retreat by the Spaniards, the Moroccan Army turned its efforts to the southeast. Another opportunity presented itself the next day at Edchera, where two companies of the 13th Legionnaire Battalion were conducting a reconnaissance mission. Slipping unseen into the largedunes near the Spanish positions, the Moroccans opened fire.
Ambushed, the Legionnaires struggled to maintain cohesion, driving off attacks withmortar andsmall arms fire. The 1st Platoon stubbornly denied ground to the Moroccans until heavy losses forced it to withdraw. Bloody Moroccan attacks continued until nightfall, and were fiercely resisted by the Spanish, who inflicted heavy casualties on the Moroccans. By nightfall, the Moroccans were too scattered and depleted of men to continue their assault, and retreated into the darkness.
In February 1958, a Franco-Spanish combined force launched an offensive that broke up theMoroccan Liberation Army. Between them,France and Spain deployed a joint air fleet of 150 planes. The Spanish were 9,000 strong and the French 5,000.
First to fall were the Moroccan mountain strongholds atTan-Tan. Bombed from above and rocketed from below, the Liberation Army suffered 150 dead and abandoned its positions.
On 10 February, the 4th, 9th, and 13th Spanish Legion battalions, organised into a motorised group, drove the Moroccans from Edchera and advanced to Tafurdat andSmara.
The Spanish army at El Aaiún, in conjunction with French forces fromFort Gouraud, struck the Moroccans on 21 February, destroying Saharan Liberation Army concentrations betweenBir Nazaran andAusert.
On 2 April 1958, the governments of Spain and Morocco signed theTreaty of Angra de Cintra which was named afterthe large bay in the area.
Morocco obtained the region of Tarfaya (Cape Juby), between theDraa River and the parallel 27°40′, and Ifni[13] (although legally Morocco only gained full control over the territory in 1969), excluding thecolony of Spanish Sahara.[14]
Spain retained possession of Sidi Ifni until 1969, when, while under some international pressure (resolution 2072 of theUnited Nations from 1965), it returned the territory to Morocco. Spain kept control of Spanish Sahara until the 1975Green March prompted it to sign theMadrid Accords with Morocco andMauritania; it withdrew from the territory in 1976 andWestern Sahara waspartitioned between Morocco and Mauritania.[15]
| UNGeneral Assembly Resolution 2072 (XX) | |
|---|---|
| Date | 16 December 1965 |
| Meeting no. | 1398 |
| Code | A/RES/2072(XX) ([ Document]) |
| Subject | Ifni andSpanish Sahara |
| Result | Adopted |
