RIO DE ORO

southern region of Western Sahara. It has an area of 71,000 square miles (184,000 square km) and lies between Cape Blanco and latitude 26 N, near Cape Bojador. The climate is very arid, with virtually no rainfall, and there are extreme variations of temperature in the interior, ranging from nearly 32 F (0 C) at night to about 122 F (50 C) in the afternoon. Its principal town, Dakhla (formerly Villa Cisneros), has a small port and must rely on imported drinking water. The narrow inlet of the Atlantic Ocean at Dakhla was called by the Portuguese the Ro de Oro (River of Gold), because the local inhabitants traded the gold dust of western Africa. In the 1880s the Spanish government claimed a protectorate over the adjoining coastal zone. After the Spanish withdrawal in 1976, the region was under de facto Mauritanian administration in the south and Moroccan occupation in the north. The presence of both countries was contested by guerrillas of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Ro de Oro (Polisario Front). In 1979 the Mauritanian government abandoned any claim to the area, and it was occupied by Morocco. Polisario forces, however, actively campaigned against Moroccan occupation into the late 20th century. The region's indigenous inhabitants are Muslim and largely nomadic Berbers.