Western Sahara, is a territory of (266,000 sq km), North West Africa. It borders on the Atlantic Ocean in the west, on Morocco in the north (443 km), on Algeria in the northeast (42 km), and on Mauritania in the east and south (1, 561 km).
Part of the Sahara, it is extremely arid and is almost entirely covered with stones, gravel, or sand. Rocky highlands in the east reach c.1, 500 ft (460 m). It is mostly low, flat desert with large areas of rocky or sandy surfaces rising to small mountains in south and northeast.
There is evidence of trade between the Western Sahara and Europe by the 4th cent. B.C. Portuguese navigators reached Cape Bojador on the northern coast of present-day Western Sahara in 1434. However, there was little European contact with the region until the 19th cent. In 1884, and as a consequence of the Berlin Conference, Spain claimed a protectorate over the coast from Cape Bojador to Cap Blanc (at the present border with Mauritania). The boundaries of the protectorate were extended by Franco-Spanish agreements in 1900, 1904, and 1920. Smara was not captured until 1934, and the Spanish had only slight contact with the interior until the 1950s. In 1957, a Saharawi Resistance movement ousted the Spanish, who regained control of the region with French and Moroccan help in Feb., 1958.
In Apr., 1958, Spain joined the previously separate districts of Saguia el Hamra (in the north) and Río de Oro (in the south) to form by a Royal Decree the province of Spanish Sahara. The UN declared the right of non-self-governing territories and placed Western Sahara on its agenda for decolonization in 1966. In the early 1970s, dissidents formed organizations seeking independence for the province. In May 1973, The Polisario Front was found, still today the unique and legitimate representative of the Saharawi people and fought with armed struggle for the independence of Western Sahara. At the same time, the UN pressured Spain to call a referendum on the area's future in accordance with UN resolutions. Continuing guerrilla warfare in the 1970s, The Madrid Agreement of 1975 to hand over “Spanish Sahara” to the neighboring countries and a march of over 300,000 Moroccans into the territory in 1975, led to Spain's withdrawal from the province in 1976, when it was renamed Western Sahara.
Upon Spain's withdrawal, and as agreed in Madrid, Morocco and Mauritania subdivided the region, with Morocco controlling the northern two thirds and Mauritania the southern third. The international Court of Justice ruled out the Moroccan claims of sovereignty over Western Sahara. The Polisario Front waged guerrilla warfare against the two nations and proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. In 1979, Mauritania withdrew from its portion, which was taken over by Morocco. Polisario continued its attacks on Moroccan strongholds. To hold control of the territory, Morocco used Napalm and White Phosphorous against the defenseless Saharawis. The brutal illegal Moroccan invasion of the territory caused thousands of refugees to flee into neighboring Algerian desert, living under tents in the most inhospitable place of the world, depending entirely on International Aid and eventually Morocco built a 2000Km sophisticated isolating defensive wall around the area. A UN-monitored cease-fire was implemented in 1991, and a referendum was to decide the territory's future. Disputes regarding who would be permitted to vote delayed the referendum in the following years, during which time the two third of the territory is still illegally integrated administratively into Morocco. The 1991 peace accords included an agreement on the carrying out of a referendum among the indigenous population. The referendum was planned to give the population the option between independence or inclusion to Morocco. The referendum has, however, to this date not been carried out due to the conflict over who is entitled to vote and the Moroccans intransigence to include thousands of their own citizens in the electoral body. UN attempts to broker a peace agreement have been unsuccessful, with Morocco generally rejecting any plan that might affect its sovereignty over the area, even though this claim is far from universally recognized and in fact a majority of other nations do not recognize the Moroccan claim.
Beside its reluctant attitude to a just and democratic solution to the conflict, Morocco, which is classified universally one of the worst regime for its records on Human rights, persists in its fragrant human rights abuses against the helpless Saharawis in the occupied zones of Western Sahara, which has been for many decades under terrible military siege and media black-out.
