The Western Sahara Portal –بوابة الصحراء الغربية

Western Sahara is anon-self-governing territory inNorth-western Africa undergoingdecolonization. It has a surface area of 272,000 square kilometres (105,000 sq mi). Western Sahara is the last African colonial state yet to achieve independence and has been dubbed "Africa's last colony". With an estimated population of around 600,000 inhabitants, it is the most sparsely populated territory in Africa and thesecond most sparsely populated territory in the world, consisting mainly of desert flatlands.

Spain previously colonized the territory as theSpanish Sahara until 1976, when itattempted to transfer its administration toMorocco andMauritania while ignoring anInternational Court of Justice'sverdict that those countries had no sovereignty over Western Sahara.A war erupted and thePolisario Front—a national liberation movement recognized by the United Nations as the legitimate representative of thepeople of Western Sahara—proclaimed theSahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) with agovernment-in-exile inTindouf, Algeria. Mauritania withdrew its claims in 1979, and Morocco securedde facto control of most of the territory, including all major cities and most natural resources. A UN-sponsored ceasefire agreement was reached in 1991, though a planned referendum monitored by the UN'sMINURSO mission has since stalled.

Approximately 30% of the Western Sahara is controlled by the Polisario Front; the remaining 70% isoccupied by Morocco. Morocco maintains theBerm, a 2,700 km-long (1,700 mi) wall lined withland mines that splits the territory. The Polisario Front is primarily supported byAlgeria and hasreceived partial international recognition for the SADR and membership in theAfrican Union. Morocco is supported byFrance and theUnited States, and several states began expressing support for itsautonomy proposal in the 2020s. (Full article...)

TheSahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), also known as theSahrawi Republic andWestern Sahara, is apartially recognized state in the westernMaghreb, which claims thenon-self-governing territory ofWestern Sahara, but controls onlythe easternmost one-fifth of that territory. It is recognized by44 UN member states andSouth Ossetia. Between 1884 and 1975, Western Sahara was known asSpanish Sahara, aSpanish colony (later an overseas province). The SADR is one of the two African states in whichSpanish is a significant language, the other beingEquatorial Guinea.

The SADR was proclaimed by thePolisario Front on 27 February 1976, inBir Lehlou, Western Sahara. The SADR government calls the territories under its control theLiberated Territories or theFree Zone.Morocco occupies the rest of the disputed territory, and calls these lands itsSouthern Provinces. The claimedcapital city of the SADR isLaayoune (the largest city of the Western Sahara territory). Since the SADR does not control Laayoune, it has established atemporary capital inTifariti, although most of the day-to-day administration happens inRabuni, one of theSahrawi refugee camps located inTindouf,Algeria. (Full article...)

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