Western Sahara: A forgotten conflict
Morocco’s claims to the disputed region seem to be getting stronger
The standoff over Western Sahara is Africa’s longest ongoing conflict. Covering 266,000 square kilometres and with a population of some 600,000 people, the disputed territory is claimed by both Morocco and the rebel Polisario Front.
Morocco controls 80% of the territory, while the Polisario Front administers the remaining 2% – pockets of land along the region’s borders with Algeria and Mauritania.
Though the conflict has been largely muted for years, recent developments brought Western Sahara back into the spotlight.
Last October, the Polisario Front blocked a key road in the Guerguerat border zone linking Western Sahara to Mauritania. The move may have been motivated by the rebel group’s desire to increase international interest in the forgotten conflict. Either way, the Moroccan army quickly launched an operation that reopened the crossing.
Then, in December, the United States recognised Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara and said it would establish a consulate there. The dramatic shift in U.S. policy, which coincided with the normalisation of Moroccan-Israeli relations, may have dealt a defining blow to Western Sahara’s quest for independence.
Independence Struggle
Morocco historically saw this barren desert region as a lawless land because it laid largely outside its jurisdiction. Its tribal sheiks accepted the Moroccan sultan in his religious capacity – a fact that Morocco uses to justify its claim to the Western Sahara, which it considers its “southern provinces.”
Following the 1884 Berlin Conference, however, Spain was allowed to occupy Western Sahara, which it renamed the Spanish Sahara in 1934. In the 1958 Treaty of Angra de Cintra, Spain removed Tarfaya from Western Sahara and ceded it to Morocco.
In 1963, the U.N. Special Committee on Decolonisation urged Spain to grant independence to Western Sahara, and two years later, the U.N. demanded that Spain end its occupation. In 1970, the Spanish colonial army brutally suppressed an uprising in Zamlah, near Western Sahara’s largest city, Laayoune, and executed the independence movement’s first leader, Mohammad Bassiri.
Spain’s concession of parts of the region to Morocco sparked the rise of Sahrawi nationalism. The Sahrawis, literally meaning “desert inhabitants,” are a multiracial group of people of Arabic, Amazigh and Black heritage whose culture is predominantly Arab.
The Polisario Front was formally established in 1973 in Mauritania with the aim of creating an independent state in Western Sahara. But its origins go back to a 1971 student movement aimed at freeing the region from Spanish control.
The pan-Arab movement, inspired by leaders like Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Naser, Algeria’s Houari Boumediene and Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, heavily influenced the Polisario Front. Its revolutionary and anti-imperialist worldview alienated it from the West; its biggest backer was Algeria, which recognised and armed the Polisario Front from the beginning of the conflict. Algeria and Morocco have been at odds over the issue ever since.
Morocco’s Claim and Invasion
Morocco made its claim to Western Sahara not long after the country’s independence in 1956, when it expressed its desire to establish a Greater Morocco under King Mohammad V’s leadership – a policy that has overwhelming public approval. In October 1975, King Hassan II organised the Green March, a rally comprising 350,000 demonstrators who marched toward Western Sahara to pressure Spain to surrender it to Morocco.
A month later, Spain, Morocco and Mauritania signed the Madrid Accords, which led to Spain’s withdrawal from Western Sahara. But the Polisario Front objected to the deal and, in February 1976, announced the formation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, with its capital-in-exile in Tindouf, Algeria. A low-intensity war followed for 16 years.
In 1979, Mauritania abandoned its territory in the region, which was immediately annexed by Morocco. The Moroccan army’s inability to prevent guerrilla attacks in areas it controlled prompted the government to construct throughout the 1980s an elaborate 2,700-kilometre sand barrier, patrolled by 100,000 troops. Libya’s cessation of military aid to the Polisario Front in 1984 and Algeria’s preoccupation with domestic issues strengthened Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara.
In 1991, the Moroccan government and Polisario signed a U.N.-brokered cease-fire. Having recognised Polisario as the sole legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people in 1979, the U.N. repeated its call for an independence referendum in Western Sahara – though one was never held.
Around 125,000 Sahrawis who escaped Morocco’s 1975 military offensive still live in five refugee camps administered by Polisario in Tindouf. It’s unlikely, however, that they would return to Western Sahara since many of them have been joined by relatives.
The Algerian government granted many of them citizenship, and others benefited from government housing projects. Rabat continues to reject sovereignty for Western Sahara but offered in 2006 to give Sahrawis expanded autonomy.
Why Western Sahara Matters
It’s impossible to understand the conflict in Western Sahara without first understanding the turbulent relationship between Morocco and Algeria. Soon after Algeria’s independence in 1962, tensions flared over Rabat’s claims to Bechar and Tindouf provinces, leading to the 1963 Sand War. That conflict left permanent scars on their relationship.
Algeria’s growing interest in the economic potential of Western Sahara, especially as its own hydrocarbon revenues decline, has intensified the competition between the two countries. Western Sahara has abundant phosphate deposits, excellent fishing grounds and potentially exploitable offshore oil resources.
A key factor in the rivalry between the two countries is the failure to integrate the economies of the Maghreb region in
Northwest Africa and the difficulty in accessing the European market.
Both countries have made efforts to facilitate this integration, with varying degrees of success. In 2015, Morocco introduced a $1 billion plan to develop Western Sahara, which included creating 120,000 jobs, promoting ecotourism and building infrastructure to link the region to European and African economies. And in 2016, Morocco constructed a highway to expedite truck traffic between Western Sahara and Mauritania in a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone near Guerguerat village, which violated the 1991 ceasefire agreement. Algeria, for its part, constructed in 2018 a desert road from Tindouf to Mauritania – which could be used to circumvent the Guerguerat border crossing to reach West Africa.
However, the long route through rugged terrain is not a practical alternative.
In addition, Morocco’s approach to Africa is a more pragmatic than Algeria’s. Moroccan King Mohammad VI has developed a robust Africa policy. To demonstrate Africa’s importance to Morocco’s economic plans and the pivotal role of Western Sahara in the endeavour, the country rejoined the Organisation of African Unity in 2017, after pulling out in 1984 because of Western Sahara’s acceptance into the group. When Morocco rejoined, despite fierce Algerian opposition, King Mohammad VI said, “Africa is my home, and I am coming back home.”
In contrast, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika failed to prioritise Africa during his 20 years in office. And unlike in Morocco, where the public supports the government’s position on Western Sahara, the Algerian government is facing resistance from some segments of society. Algerian youth, for example, are demanding change to address domestic issues like rising unemployment and lack of political representation.
The U.N. continues to advocate for a referendum to end the impasse in Western Sahara, but Morocco has been unwavering in its claims to sovereignty over the disputed region. The stability of its monarchy and its strong ties with the U.S., Israel and the Gulf states have given Morocco the upper hand.