🇪🇭 Western Sahara

The arrival of Islam played a major role in the development of the Maghreb. Trade developed further, and the territory may have served as one of the caravan routes between Marrakesh and Tombouctou in Mali.

The Maqil Arabs settled in Morocco in the 11th century, and their Beni Hassan sub-tribe later moved beyond the Saguia el-Hamra after defeat by the Marinid sultan. Over roughly five centuries, acculturation between Berber and Maqil Arab tribes produced the distinctive Sahrawi culture of the region.

After the European colonial powers agreed the division of spheres of influence in Africa at the Berlin Conference in 1884, Spain established the territory as a colony, with its first settlement at Río de Oro Bay. Spanish presence would last until 1975, defining the territory's modern boundaries and legal status.

Having claimed the southern coastal region in the 19th century, Spain extended its claim to the northern region in 1904. Penetration of the hinterland followed only gradually.

Raids and rebellions by the indigenous Saharan population had kept Spanish forces out of much of the territory until joint Spanish-French operations pacified it in 1934. In the same year the Spanish divided their Saharan territories into Saguía el-Hamra and Río de Oro.

After the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the area was administered by Spanish Morocco. This administrative arrangement lasted until the territory's later reorganisation as a Spanish province.

Spain abandoned most territories within neighbouring Morocco in 1956 but fought off encroachment by the Moroccan Liberation Army in Ifni and Spanish Sahara between 1956 and 1958. The episode marked the start of Moroccan claims on the territory.

Following Morocco's claim to the regions in 1957, Spain joined the northern district of Saguia el-Hamra with Río de Oro in the south to form a single province. Local Saharan lords, including the Maa El Ainain family, recommended candidates for governorships selected jointly with the Spanish High Commissioner.

Sahrawi students at Moroccan universities began organising a liberation movement in 1971. It failed to gain backing from Arab governments including Algeria and Morocco, but marked the beginning of organised Sahrawi nationalism.

As Spain divested itself of its remaining colonial possessions, the government promised a referendum on independence in Western Sahara. The pledge established the principle of self-determination that has framed the dispute ever since.

The census counted some 74,000 Sahrawis alongside roughly 20,000 Spanish residents, though the figure is thought low given the difficulty of counting nomads. It later became the disputed basis for voter registration in the proposed referendum.

The Polisario Front fought Moroccan forces for control of the territory, contesting Morocco's sovereignty until the 1991 cease-fire.

Algeria, suspicious of Moroccan and Mauritanian claims and itself the target of Moroccan claims on Tindouf and Béchar, backed the Polisario Front in 1975. Algerian sponsorship made sustained guerrilla resistance and the Tindouf refugee camps possible.

The ICJ acknowledged historical links between Western Sahara and both Morocco and Mauritania, but found them insufficient to establish sovereignty of either state at the time of Spanish colonisation. It concluded that the territory's population possessed the right of self-determination, the legal cornerstone of the Sahrawi case.

The war of 1975 forced part of the clan-based Sahrawi society to settle in refugee camps at Tindouf in Algeria, where they remain. The displacement caused a massive social upheaval and created the Polisario's home base.

On 31 October 1975, days before the Green March, Moroccan forces crossed into the territory. The invasion began the armed phase of Moroccan control.

On 6 November 1975, at King Hassan II's signal, 350,000 unarmed Moroccans converged on Tarfaya and crossed into Western Sahara. The march applied decisive pressure on a collapsing Francoist Spain to relinquish the territory.

On 14 November 1975 Spain signed a tripartite agreement establishing bipartite administration with Morocco and Mauritania, and terminated its presence within three months. Spain thereby absolved itself of responsibility for the territory without a referendum, leaving the sovereignty question unresolved.

After Spain withdrew from its former colony of Spanish Sahara, Morocco and Mauritania partitioned the disputed territory on the northwest coast of Africa, bordered by Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria: Morocco annexed the northern two-thirds as its Southern Provinces while Mauritania took the southern third as Tiris al-Gharbiyya. The partition was resisted by the Polisario Front, which launched guerrilla warfare.

Under pressure from Polisario guerrillas, including bombardment of its capital and economic targets, Mauritania abandoned Tiris al-Gharbiyya in 1979. Morocco moved to occupy the sector shortly afterwards and has since asserted administrative control over the whole territory.

Morocco gradually contained the Polisario guerrillas by constructing an extensive defensive sand berm, some 2,700 km long and lined with land mines, running the length of the territory and splitting it in two. Built between 1980 and 1987, it secured Moroccan control of the major cities and most natural resources and continues to separate the opposing forces, with Morocco controlling roughly 80 per cent of the territory west of it.

The guerrilla war contesting Morocco's sovereignty ended in a 1991 UN-sponsored cease-fire under a Settlement Plan overseen by the new peacekeeping operation MINURSO. The plan provided for a referendum offering independence or integration with Morocco, with voter registration based on the 1974 Spanish census.

The UN sought to offer the peoples of Western Sahara a choice between independence, favoured by the Polisario Front, or integration into Morocco. The proposed referendum never took place owing to a lack of agreement on voter eligibility.

The Council referenced Morocco's autonomy proposal as a basis for talks aimed at a just, lasting and mutually acceptable resolution consistent with the UN Charter. It recognised that genuine autonomy could represent a most feasible outcome, a decisive tilt in the territory's international standing.

The UK Foreign Secretary described the Moroccan plan as the most credible, viable and pragmatic basis for resolving the conflict. The statement added another permanent Security Council member to those backing Rabat's position.

The French president endorsed the plan in a speech to the Parliament of Morocco and unveiled a €25 million investment in Guelmim-Oued Noun, which includes part of Western Sahara. France's shift consolidated great-power support for Rabat.

The court held that products harvested in Western Sahara and imported into the EU must be labelled with their territory of origin rather than as Moroccan. The ruling was one of a series of limited legal victories for the Polisario Front in European and African courts.

Spain endorsed the Moroccan autonomy proposal as the most serious, realistic and credible basis for resolving the dispute, reversing its traditional position. The turnaround was rejected by the opposition, coalition partners and the Polisario Front.

On 10 December 2020 Washington agreed to recognise full Moroccan sovereignty in exchange for Morocco normalising relations with Israel. A temporary US consulate post was established in Dakhla in January 2021, and Israel formally recognised Moroccan sovereignty in July 2023.

The ceasefire collapsed in November 2020, leading to ongoing armed clashes between the two sides. It ended nearly three decades without serious hostile action.

On 18 December 2019 the Comoros became the first nation to open a consulate in Laayoune in support of Moroccan claims. The Gambia, Guinea and Gabon followed in January 2020, beginning a wave of de facto recognition by African states.

The talks on 5 December 2018 were the first in six years between the two parties. Both sides agreed to meet again within months for further discussions.

The EU declaration reinforced the territory's separate legal status in European law. In the same year Morocco expelled more than 70 UN civilian staff from MINURSO after Ban Ki-moon described the annexation as an occupation.

More than 12,000 people gathered at the camp to protest about their living conditions. In November 2010 Moroccan security forces dismantled it using helicopters and water cannon, triggering riots in Laayoune in which Moroccan officials said five security personnel were killed.

Morocco suggested a self-governing entity operating through CORCAS with some degree of autonomy for the territory, formally submitting the project in mid-April 2007. The proposal has since become the reference point around which international diplomacy on the dispute has converged.

The appointed advisory body proposes a self-governing Western Sahara as an autonomous community within Morocco. It formed the institutional vehicle for the Moroccan autonomy proposal presented to the UN Security Council in April 2007.

Demonstrations and riots by supporters of independence or a referendum broke out in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara and southern Morocco and were met by police. International human rights organisations expressed concern at abuses by Moroccan security forces, and a number of Sahrawi activists were jailed.

Following pressure from corporate ethics groups and the 2002 Corell opinion, TotalEnergies withdrew in late 2004. Kerr-McGee, the remaining company, left in May 2006 after divestment by shareholders including the Norwegian oil fund.

Baker quit after months of failed attempts to bring Morocco into formal negotiations on his plan. The UN put forward no replacement strategy after the breakdown of Baker II.

A revised plan spelling out the powers of the Western Sahara Authority and detailing the referendum process was accepted by Polisario as a basis for negotiations and unanimously endorsed by the Security Council in summer 2003. Morocco refused to enter formal negotiations, and the plan collapsed.

The opinion held that existing exploration contracts were not illegal, but that further exploration and exploitation in disregard of the wishes of the people of Western Sahara would violate international law. It became the reference point for campaigns against foreign resource extraction in the territory.

Local demonstrations criticising the Moroccan authorities occur regularly, and there are periodic ethnic tensions between the native Sahrawi population and Moroccan immigrants. Morocco maintains a heavy security presence in the territory.

James Baker, as personal envoy of the Secretary-General, proposed an autonomous Western Sahara Authority followed after five years by a referendum open to all residents regardless of birthplace. Both sides rejected it, Polisario objecting that Moroccan settlers would be enfranchised and the ballot split three ways.

The UN mission announced a voter roll of 86,425 Sahrawis dispersed between the Moroccan-occupied territory, the Tindouf camps, Mauritania and other places of exile. Polisario accepted the list but Morocco rejected it and demanded individual scrutiny of mass appeals, halting the process.

The 1997 Houston Agreement attempted to restart the stalled referendum process but likewise failed. Shortly afterwards Morocco declared an independence option on the ballot was no longer necessary, offering autonomy instead.