Morocco usually doesn’t come to mind when you think of turmoil, instability, and war.
The North African country is known for its ancient cities, iconic markets, and associations
with the Beat poets.
But what if I told you the country was involved in a oft-forgotten, decades-long conflict
in Western Sahara, one that has cost thousands of lives but never seems to grab headlines
like Libya, Egypt, or Sudan?
Western Sahara is a territory located in the northwest coast of Africa.
Bordered by Morocco, Mauritania, and Algeria, Western Sahara is about the size of Colorado
and home to roughly 600,000 people, most of whom are ethnically Sahrawi.
True to its name, Western Sahara is mostly a dry and inhospitable desert.
But it is rich in phosphate deposits and it has access to offshore fishing grounds.
As of now, the area is 85 percent controlled by Morocco.
But Morocco’s claim to the territory is contested by the homegrown liberation movement
known as the Polisario Front.
But how did it all start?
To understand, we have to rewind all the way back to the post-World War II era and the
decolonization of Africa.
In the 1950s, France and Spain began to give up their colonial holdings in North Africa
and the Sahel, and new countries started to take shape—still with quite a lot of influence
from the imperial powers.
Suddenly, you had newly-free nations like Morocco eyeing territorial borders set up
by the former colonizers and wondering why those borders needed to be respected.
A year after it gained its independence, Morocco laid its claim to Spanish-controlled Western
Sahara at the United Nations in 1957.
The U.N. took over the case.
In 1965, the body called on Spain to formally decolonize the territory once and for all.
Over the next eight years, the General Assembly adopted seven resolutions on Western Sahara,
each reiterating the territory’s right to self-determination.
It was at this time in 1973 that the Polisario Front was formed.
At first, the Sahrawi insurgency fought against the Spanish occupiers in pursuit of independence.
But the situation drastically changed in 1975 when Moroccan King Hassan II defied a Hague
ruling that was in favor of West Saharan self-determination.
King Hassan launched the “Green March.”
On November 6, the kingdom staked its claim to the territory as some 350,000 unarmed Moroccans
crossed into Western Sahara.
The march pressured Spain to cede Western Sahara to Morocco and Mauritania—though
Mauritania would give up its claim in 1979.
The move was condemned by the U.N. and eventually triggered the Western Sahara War.
This phase of war lasted from 1975 to 1991, with the Polisario Front waging a violent
guerrilla struggle against the Moroccan army.
The conflict was bloody during the early part of the war, but the number of casualties experienced
on both sides is hard to determine due to unreliable reporting.
Some put the final death toll at 20,000.
Additionally, the conflict led to the displacement of thousands of Sahrawis, some of whom still
reside in refugee camps in southwest Algeria.
After almost two decades of fighting, the U.N. finally brokered a ceasefire in 1991.
But the ceasefire was based on a referendum that hasn’t been held yet, so the territory’s
status remains undecided as Morocco maintains its presence.
And since then, several ceasefire violations have been reported.
The U.N. has recently tried to kick start new peace talks, but progress is moving at
a sluggish pace.
So for now, the conflict in Western Sahara languishes on as the world continues to avert
its gaze.
What are the conflicts in the world that did capture much of the attention in 2017?
Find out in this next video recapping the year in global war and civil conflicts.
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