Western Sahara

Western Sahara[a] is a disputed territory on the northwest coast of Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 80% is occupied[3][4] and administered by neighboring Morocco. It has a surface area of 266,000 square kilometres (103,000 sq mi). It is the second most sparsely populated country in the world and most sparsely in Africa, mainly consisting of desert flatlands. The population is estimated at about 500,000,[5] of which nearly 40% live in Morocco-controlled Laayoune, the largest city in Western Sahara.

Occupied by Spain until 1975, Western Sahara has been on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories since 1963 after a Moroccan demand.[6] In 1965, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on Western Sahara, asking Spain to decolonize the territory.[7] A year later, a resolution was passed requesting that a referendum be held by Spain on self-determination.[8] In 1975, Spain relinquished administrative control of the territory to a joint administration by Morocco[9] and Mauritania.[8] A war erupted between those countries and a Sahrawi nationalist movement, the Polisario Front, which proclaimed itself the rightful leadership of the SADR with a government in exile in Tindouf, Algeria. Mauritania withdrew its claims in 1979, and Morocco secured de facto control of most of the territory, including all major cities and most natural resources. The UN considers the Polisario Front to be the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people, and maintains the Sahrawis have a right to self-determination.[10][11] Western Sahara is the last African colonial state yet to achieve independence and has been dubbed "Africa's last colony".[12][13]

Since a UN-sponsored ceasefire agreement in 1991, most of the territory has been administered by the Moroccan government, with tacit support from France and the United States. The remainder is administered by the SADR, backed by Algeria.[14] The only part of the coast in SADR territory is the extreme south. Internationally, countries such as Russia have taken an ambiguous and neutral position on each side's claims and pressed parties to agree on a peaceful resolution. Morocco and Polisario have sought to boost their claims by accumulating formal recognition, especially from African, Asian, and Latin American states in the developing world. The Polisario Front has won formal recognition for SADR from 46 states, and was extended membership of the African Union. Morocco has won support from several African governments and most of the Muslim world and Arab League.[15][unreliable source?] In most instances, recognitions are extended or withdrawn due to a change in relations with Morocco. Until 2020, no other member state of the UN had ever recognized Moroccan sovereignty over parts of Western Sahara.[16][17][18] In 2020, the US recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in exchange for Moroccan normalization of relations with Israel.[19][20] In 2023 Israel recognized Moroccan sovereignty.[21]

In 1984, the African Union's predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity, recognized the SADR as one of its full members, with the same status as Morocco, and Morocco protested by suspending its membership of the OAU. Morocco was readmitted to the Union in 2017, after promising conflicting claims would be resolved peacefully and it would stop building walls to extend its military control. Meanwhile, the African Union has not issued any formal statement about the border separating the sovereign territories of Morocco and the SADR. Instead, the African Union works with the UN mission to maintain the ceasefire and reach a peace agreement. The African Union provides a peacekeeping contingent to the UN mission which is used to control a buffer zone near the de facto border walls built by Morocco.