POLISARIO

abbreviation of Popular Front For The Liberation Of Saguia El Hamra And Ro De Oro, Spanish Frente Popular Para La Liberacin De Saguia El Hamra Y Ro De Oro, politico-military organization striving to end Moroccan control of the former Spanish territory of Western Sahara (q.v.), in northwestern Africa, and win independence for that region. Polisario is composed largely of the indigenous nomadic inhabitants of the Western Sahara region, the Saharawis. Polisario began as an insurgency (based in neighbouring Mauritania) against Spanish control of the Western Sahara. After Spain withdrew and Morocco and Mauritania partitioned Western Sahara between them in 1976, Polisario relocated to Algeria, which henceforth provided the organization with bases and military aid. Mauritania made peace with Polisario in 1979, but Morocco then unilaterally annexed Mauritania's portion of the Western Sahara. During the 1980s the Polisario guerrillas, numbering some 15,000 motorized and well-armed troops, harassed and raided Moroccan outposts and defenses in the Western Sahara. The Polisario declined from the late 1980s, however, as its two main backers, Algeria and Libya, reduced their support in order to concentrate on their internal problems.