See Morocco

Coat of Arms

• hot, dry desert; rain is rare; cold offshore air currents produce fog and heavy dew

• 24 30 N, 13 00 W

• total: 2,046 km
  border countries: Algeria 42 km, Mauritania 1,561 km, Morocco 443 km

• Northern Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Mauritania and Morocco

• phosphates, iron ore

• total: 266,000 sq km
  land: 266,000 sq km
  water: 0 sq km
• (Compare to other countries)

• mostly low, flat desert with large areas of rocky or sandy surfaces rising to small mountains in south and northeast

• the waters off the coast are particularly rich fishing areas

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National parks & reserves

• Dakhla

The history of Western Sahara begins with the arrival of the camel which facilitated trade and exchanges. Earlier, there were some Phonecian contacts but with no major influence.

The arrival of Islam in the 8th century played a major role in the development of relationships between Western Sahara and the neighbouring regions. Trade developped further and the region became a passage of caravans especially between Marrakech and Tombouctou in Mali. Soon later, Almoravids were able to control the area.

The first settlers of the Sahara are theorized to be the Beni Hassan, a Yemeni tribe.

During the first two decades of the 20th century, Spain created the colony of Spanish Sahara through successive treaties and agreements with local populations and France. Due to internal pressures following the death of Francisco Franco in 1975, and the global trend in decolonization, Spain planned to divest itself of the Sahara, and promised a referendum regarding independence. On November 6, 1975 the Green March into Western Sahara began when 300,000 unarmed Moroccans converged on the city of Tarfaya in southern Morocco and waited for a signal from King Hassan II of Morocco to cross into Western Sahara. As a result, Spain abandoned Western Sahara on November 14, 1975, repatriating even the Spanish corpses from its cemeteries. Morocco then virtually annexed the northern two-thirds of Western Sahara (formerly Spanish Sahara) in 1976. In 1979, following Mauritania's withdrawal, Morocco extended its control to the rest of the territory. A guerrilla war carried by the Polisario Front contesting Rabat's sovereignty ended in a 1991 cease-fire by United Nations peacekeeping mission MINURSO.

Map of the Moroccan Wall and territory outside the wall (yellow)The referendum, originally scheduled for 1992, was planned to give the indigenous population the option between independence or inclusion to Morocco, but has not taken place as of 2005. At the heart of the dispute lays the question of who can be registered as an indigenous voter. In 1997, the Houston Agreement made another attempt to implement the referendum, but failed.

Both sides blame each other for the stalling of the referendum. But while the Polisario has consistently asked for the UN to go ahead with the vote, standing only to lose from the status quo, Morocco has been troubled by the risk of losing a referendum or receiving a large enough vote against annexation to undermine years of nationalist rhetoric from the government. Indeed, shortly after the Houston Agreement, the kingdom officially declared that it was "no longer necessary" to include an option of independence on the ballot, offering instead autonomy. Erik Jensen, who played an administrative role in MINURSO, wrote that neither side would agree to a voter registration in which they were destined to lose (see Western Sahara: Anatomy of a Stalemate)

A United States-backed document known as the "James Baker peace plan" was discussed by the United Nations Security Council in 2000, and envisioned a future Western Sahara Authority (WSA), to be followed after five years by the referendum. It was rejected by both sides, although initially spawned from a Moroccan proposal. According to Baker's draft, Moroccan settlers would be granted the vote in the Sahrawi independence referendum, and the ballot would be split three-ways by the inclusion of an unspecified "autonomy", further undermining the independence camp. Also, Morocco was allowed to keep its army in the area and to retain the control over all security issues during both the autonomy years and the election.

In 2003 a new version of the plan was made official, with some additions spelling out the powers of the WSA, making it less reliant on the Moroccan devolution. It also provided further detail on the referendum process in order to make it harder to stall or subvert. This second draft, commonly known as Baker II, was accepted by the Polisario as a "basis of negotiations" to the surprise of many. This contradicts the Polisario's policy of only negotiating with the standards of voter identification from 1991. After that, the draft quickly garnered widespread international support, culminating in the UN Security Council's unanimous endorsement of the plan in the summer of 2003.

Today the Baker II document appears politically dead, having led nowhere, and with Baker having resigned his post at the UN in 2004. His resignation followed several months of failed attempts to get Morocco to enter into formal negotiations on the plan, but he met with rejection. The new king, Mohammed VI of Morocco, opposes the concept of a referendum on independence, and has said Morocco will never agree to one. His father, Hassan II of Morocco, initially supported the idea in principle in 1982, and in signed contracts in 1991 and 1997.

The UN has put forth no replacement strategy after the breakdown of Baker II, and renewed fighting is a possibility. In 2005, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan reported increased military activity on both sides of the front and breaches of several cease-fire provisions against strengthening military fortifications.

Morocco, has repeatedly tried to get Algeria into bilateral negotiations, with receiving vocal support from France and occasionally and currently from the United States. These negotiations would define the exact limits of a Western Sahara autonomy under Moroccan rule, but only after Morocco's "inalienable right" to the territory was recognized as a precondition to the talks. The Algerian government has consistently refused, claiming it has neither the will nor the right to negotiate on the behalf of the Polisario Front. From Wikipedia.

In November, King Hassan mobilized 350,000 unarmed Moroccan citizens in what came to be known as the "Green March" into Western Sahara. The march was designed to both demonstrate and strengthen Moroccan claims to the territory.

On November 14, Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania announced a tripartite agreement for an interim administration under which Spain agreed to share administrative authority with Morocco and Mauritania, leaving aside the question of sovereignty. With the establishment of a Moroccan and Mauritanian presence throughout the territory, however, Spain's role in the administration of the Western Sahara ceased altogether.

At the OAU (now African Union) summit in June, King Hassan announced his willingness to hold a referendum in the Western Sahara. Subsequent meetings of an OAU Implementation Committee proposed a cease-fire, a UN peacekeeping force, and an interim administration to assist with an OAU-UN-supervised referendum on the issue of independence or annexation.

• See Morocco

• See Morocco

• chief of state; See Morocco

• legal status of territory and issue of sovereignty unresolved; territory contested by Morocco and Polisario Front (Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro), which in February 1976 formally proclaimed a government-in-exile of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), led by President Mohamed ABDELAZIZ; territory partitioned between Morocco and Mauritania in April 1976, with Morocco acquiring northern two-thirds; Mauritania, under pressure from Polisario guerrillas, abandoned all claims to its portion in August 1979; Morocco moved to occupy that sector shortly thereafter and has since asserted administrative control; the Polisario's government-in-exile was seated as an OAU member in 1984; guerrilla activities continued sporadically, until a UN-monitored cease-fire was implemented 6 September 1991

• See Morocco

• See Morocco

• See Morocco

• Laâyoune; Dakhla; Es Semara; Boujdour

• Currently administered as a territory of Morocco, the liberation group POLISARIO unilaterally declared independence for Western Sahara in 1979 under the name Saharan Arab Democratic Republic, and adopted an anthem. It is unclear if there are any words to this anthem or not.

• 11 (2004 est.) (Compare to other countries)

• total: 6,200 km
  paved: 1,350 km
  unpaved: 4,850 km (1991 est)
• (Compare to other countries)

• Ad Dakhla, Cabo Bojador, Laayoune (El Aaiun)

Fixed lines
& mobile telephones
(per 1,000 people)
(From ITU)

• Included in Morocco statistics

• 212

• .eh

• NA
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Radio

• National Radio of the SADR
• RTM Laayoune

• Included in Morocco statistics

• Included in Morocco statistics

• about 2,000 (1999 est.)
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• 0 (1999)
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• UTC/GMT 0 (no offset)
• Find the local time: Time and Date

• fruits and vegetables (grown in the few oases); camels, sheep, goats (kept by nomads)

• Moroccan dirham (MAD)
• Currency converter

• Moroccan dirhams per US dollar - 8.868 (2004), 9.5744 (2003), 11.0206 (2002), 11.303 (2001), 10.6256 (2000)

• phosphates 62%

• Morocco claims and administers Western Sahara, so trade partners are included in overall Moroccan accounts

• calendar year

• purchasing power parity - NA
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• NA
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• fuel for fishing fleet, foodstuffs

• Morocco claims and administers Western Sahara, so trade partners are included in overall Moroccan accounts

• phosphate mining, handicrafts

• NA
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• NA

• NA
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• See Morocco.

• Included in Morocco statistics

• See Morocco.

• None

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• NA- Will be updated from the road!