Western Sahara is a sparsely populated territory on the northwest African coast, bordered by Morocco, Algeria, and Mauritania. It was a Spanish colony (Spanish Sahara) until 1975, when Spain withdrew under the Madrid Accords, transferring administration to Morocco and Mauritania. The indigenous Sahrawi liberation movement, the Polisario Front (founded 1973), rejected the partition and proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in 1976, backed by Algeria.
In an advisory opinion of 16 October 1975, the International Court of Justice found that while some legal ties existed between the territory and Morocco and the Mauritanian entity, none amounted to sovereignty that would override the principle of self-determination. Days later, Morocco organized the Green March, moving roughly 350,000 civilians into the territory. Mauritania withdrew its claim in 1979; Morocco then extended control over most of the land, eventually constructing a heavily fortified sand berm separating Moroccan-administered areas from a Polisario-controlled eastern strip.
A guerrilla war ended with a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991, paired with the deployment of MINURSO (UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara). The promised referendum on independence has never been held, blocked chiefly by disputes over voter eligibility. Morocco proposes autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty; Polisario insists on a referendum including independence as an option.
The dispute remains on the UN list of Non-Self-Governing Territories. The African Union admitted SADR in 1984, prompting Morocco's withdrawal until its return in 2017. International recognition is split: the United States recognized Moroccan sovereignty in December 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords-linked normalization with Israel, and Spain (2022), Germany, and France (2024) have endorsed Morocco's autonomy plan as a basis for resolution, while Algeria and many African and Latin American states continue to recognize SADR. Polisario ended its observance of the ceasefire in November 2020 after incidents at the Guerguerat border crossing, and low-intensity clashes have since resumed.
Example
In November 2020, the Polisario Front declared the 1991 ceasefire void after Moroccan forces moved into the Guerguerat buffer zone to reopen a road blocked by Sahrawi protesters.
Frequently asked questions
Morocco administers roughly 80% of the territory west of a fortified sand berm; the Polisario Front controls the sparsely populated eastern strip and runs Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria.
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