WESTERN SAHARA

Arabic Sahara' Al-gharbiyah, formerly (until 1976) Spanish Sahara, former overseas province of Spain occupying an extensive desert Atlantic-coastal area (97,344 square miles [252,120 square km]) of northwest Africa. It is composed of the geographic regions of Ro de Oro (River of Gold), occupying the southern two-thirds of the region (between Cape Blanco and Cape Bojador), and Saguia el Hamra, occupying the northern third. It is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the west and northwest, by Morocco on the north, by Algeria for a few miles in the northeast, and by Mauritania on the east and south. Little is known of the prehistory of the Western Sahara, although rock engravings in Saguia el Hamra and in isolated locations in the south suggest a succession of hunting and pastoral groups, with some agriculturists in favoured locales. By the 4th century BC there was trade between the Western Sahara and Europe across the Mediterranean; the Phoenicians sailed along the west coast of Africa in this period, possibly in a vain attempt to establish more direct trade routes. The Romans also had little contact with the Saharan peoples. By medieval times this part of the Sahara was occupied by Sanhajah Berber tribes who were later dominated by Arabic-speaking Muslim Bedouins. In 1346 the Portuguese discovered a bay that they mistakenly identified with a more southerly Ro de Oro, probably the Sngal River. The coastal region was little explored until Scottish and Spanish merchants arrived in the mid-19th century. In 1884 Emilio Bonelli, of the Sociedad Espaola de Africanistas y Colonistas (Spanish Society of Africanists and Colonists), went to Ro de Oro Bay and signed treaties with the coastal tribes. Subsequently, the Spanish government claimed a protectorate over the coastal zone. Further Spanish penetration was hindered by French claims to Mauritania and by partisans of Sheikh Ma' al-'Aynayn, who in 1904 founded the town of Smara at an inland oasis. Cape Juby was occupied for Spain by Colonel Francisco Bens in 1916 and Gera in 1920; Smara and the rest of the interior was occupied in 1934. In 1957 the Spanish Sahara was claimed by Morocco, which itself had just reached independence the previous year. Spanish troops succeeded in repelling Moroccan military incursions into the territory, and in 1958 Spain formally united Ro de Oro and Saguia el Hamra into a Spanish province known as Spanish Sahara. But the situation was further complicated by newly independent Mauritania's putting forth claims to the province in 1960, and in 1963 huge phosphate deposits were discovered at Bu Craa in the northern portion of the Spanish Sahara. This made the province a potentially economically valuable prize for any nation that could firmly establish possession of it. Mining of the deposits at Bu Craa began in 1972. In the meantime, a guerrilla insurgency by the Spanish Sahara's indigenous inhabitants, the nomadic Saharawis, sprang up in the early 1970s. They sought independence for the region. The insurgency led Spain to declare in 1975 that it would withdraw from the area, and in that same year the World Court ruled that Morocco's and Mauritania's legal claims to the Spanish Sahara were tenuous and basically irrelevant to the area's self-determination. From November 1975 the area was administered jointly by Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania; and, when in February 1976 the Spanish departed, Morocco and Mauritania divided the area between themselves, Morocco gaining the northern two-thirds of the area and, consequently, the phosphates. Sporadic fighting developed between Moroccan forces and guerrillas of the Saharawi insurgency, the Polisario Front (from Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Ro de Oro), which was supported by and based in Algeria. The Polisario in 1976 declared a government-in-exile of what it called the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (a government recognized by some 70 nations), and it continued to raid the Mauritanian and Moroccan outposts in the Western Sahara. Mauritania bowed out of the fighting and reached a peace agreement with the Polisario Front in 1979, but in response Morocco promptly annexed Mauritania's portion of Western Sahara. Morocco fortified the vital triangle formed by the Bu Craa mines, the old colonial capital of El Aain, and the city of Smara, while the Polisario guerrillas continued their raids. A United Nations peace proposal in 1988 specified a referendum for the indigenous Saharawis to decide whether they wanted an independent Western Sahara under the Polisario Front's leadership or whether the region would officially become part of Morocco. This peace proposal was accepted by both Morocco and the Polisario Front, and the two sides agreed to a cease-fire in 1991. Preparations to hold the referendum subsequently stalled, however, and the Polisario Front's position grew weaker as Algeria cut back its military and financial support and Morocco moved tens of thousands of settlers into the Western Sahara. Western Sahara is virtually all desert and is extremely sparsely inhabited. The Kasbah and Mosque of Smara are the only major Muslim monuments in the Western Sahara. The principal town is El Aain, the old colonial capital. There is little agriculture in the region; camels, goats, and sheep are raised, and dried fish is exported to the Canary Islands. Sources of potash and iron ore are at Agracha and elsewhere, and the vast phosphate deposits are at Bu Craa, southeast of El Aain. Phosphate extraction, however, presents problems because of the shortage of water; a conveyor belt carries phosphate from the mines to the piers 18 miles (29 km) southwest of El Aain. Motorable tracks abound in the country's extremely flat terrain, but there are no proper roads. There are regular air services between El Aain and Dakhlah (formerly Villa Cisneros) and between El Aain and Las Palmas (in the Canary Islands), Nouakchott (in Mauritania), and Casablanca. Pop. (1994 est.) 208,000.