on the west coast of Africa there's a place called Western Sahara you may recognize it from data maps in which it's almost always gray no data available this is because Western Sahara is a disputed territory with a population of around 500,000 yet a land area greater than that of the United Kingdom Western Sahara is one of the most sparsely populated parts of the world most of Western Sahara is hot dry uninhabitable desert but despite this Western Sahara is claimed by two different parties on the one hand Western Sahara is claimed by Morocco as an integral
part of its country the southern provinces on the other hand Western Sahara is claimed by the polisario front a rebel National Liberation movement fighting for the independence of Western Sahara as the sarawi Arab Democratic Republic about 80% of the region is controlled and administered by Morocco including all the coastline and natural resources in the area Moroccan built walls through Western Sahara split the Moroccan control area from the so-called free zone or liberated territories controlled by the polisario front although their headquarters are actually located in southwestern Algeria a strong Ally of the polisario this is because
the polisario control part of western Sahara is almost entirely uninhabitable desert the origin of the dispute goes back to the end of the 19th century a time when the Western European powers began to colonize the African continent the colonization of Africa was regulated in order to avoid any conflict among the Europeans the Berlin Conference of 1884 was used to delegate land to the various European countries by 1914 90% of Africa was under European Colonial rule while the majority went to the British and French Western Sahara was given to Spain at the time known as Spanish
Sahara fast forward to 1945 and the end of World War II and the creation of the United Nations by the victiv of the war the UN was set out to maintain International Peace and promote human rights of course colonization is contradictory to this which is why the UN is fundamentally against colonialism as stated in article 7 3 of the UN Charter throughout the 1960s the UN made an effort to decolonize the African continent through resolution 1514 and a special committee on decolonization was created by 1988 the entire African continent had been decolonized except for Western
Sahara but if we back up to 1956 when Morocco gained independence from France and Spain immediately after Independence Morocco claimed that Spanish Sahara was part of the pre-colonial Morocco and they were the rightful owners of the land just one year later morania made similar claims and believed that Spanish aara was theirs this was 3 years before getting independence from France in 1973 the polisario front was established to end the Spanish colonial rule in the western Sahara and fight for the independence of the indigenous Sali people at this point the region was now claimed by four
different parties Spain Morocco morania and the polisario front polisario troops with backing from Algeria engaged the Spanish forces in Guerilla Warfare at this point though Spain was already under heavy pressure from the UN to decolonize Spanish Sahara so Spain were unwilling to get involved in any War over the land they were going to have to give up anyway Spain agreed to hold a referendum so the sari people could choose to be an independent country or be integrated with one of the neighboring countries Morocco or morania Morocco requested the referendum be postponed calling for a hearing
from the international court of justice regarding Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara the referendum was successfully postponed and in prep ation of the referendum a un visiting mission to Western Sahara found an overwhelming consensus towards independence and that the polisario front with the most powerful political force in the area the day after the UN visiting Mission the international court of justice published its advisory opinion regarding Western Sahara the court acknowledged that both Morocco and morania had historical ties to the region but nothing that would imply any legal sovereignty so the referendum was to go along as
planned but just hours after the Court's opinion was released Morocco announced and began organizing a green March the green March was a demonstration into Western Sahara of 300,000 Moroccan people escorted by 20,000 Moroccan troops this was done with a goal of putting pressure on Spain to transfer sovereignty over to them the Moroccan forces were met with no resistance from the Spanish forces as they marched into Western Sahara however they were met by considerable resistance from the polisario front who believed the region was rightfully theirs conflict between Morocco and the paaro front led to what would
become a 16-year long war and under pressure from Morocco Spain held talks with both Morocco and morania and the three parties signed the Madrid Accords the Madrid Accords was a temporary tripartite Administration in which Spain would had administrative control of Western Sahara over to Morocco and morania Morocco would control the northern 2/3 while malania controlled the southern third the Madrid of course however was not a transfer of sovereignty the polisario front were obviously extremely unhappy with the Madrid Accords believing it went against the international court of justice heaing as this did not constitute self-determination of
the sarawi people as Morocco and morania moved in to take control of Western Sahara they were met with heavy resistance from po sario troops with significant backing from Algeria by the 26th of February 1976 all Spanish forces had withdrawn from Western Sahara the very next day the polisario front proclaimed the sarawi Arab Democratic Republic claiming Western Sahara as their land in 1979 the polisario front and morania signed the peace treaty as morania abandoned all claims to Western Sahara Morocco quickly moved in to claim the land left by morania in 1982 the sarawi Arab Democratic Republic
was admitted to the organization of African Unity as the government of Western Sahara in protest of this Morocco withdrew its membership in 1991 after 16 years of war Morocco and the polisario front signed a ceasefire agreement part of the ceasefire agreement was that a referendum would take place within 6 months but despite several attempts this is still yet to happen to this day attempts were made in 1992 and 97 but there were disagreements about voter eligibility in the Years 2001 and 2003 a different approach was taken to resolve the dispute with two versions of What
were known as the baker plan the baker plan would give the SRA people an autonomous government under the sovereignty of Morocco with a transitional period of 5 years with a referendum to follow the first version of which was rejected by the Poo but the second version was reluctantly accepted by them and unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council Mor however rejected the plan and stated that they would no longer agree to a referendum with Independence as an option so as things stand today Morocco controls about 80% of Western Sahara with the polisario front exiled in
Algeria and control of the remaining 20% the sari Arab Democratic Republic is currently recognized by 45 UN members although 39 countries have recognized them in the past but have since withdrawn their recognition the majority of these 45 countries are other African nations no country organized ation has ever officially recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara but many countries SW the idea of sarawi autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty in 2004 James Baker with whom the baker plan was named after resigned from his position at the United Nations believing that there was no feasible solution for resolving the dispute
over Western Sahara that would suit both parties and unfortunately he may very well be right
