{"id":732,"date":"2017-05-04T05:00:01","date_gmt":"2017-05-03T23:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mapsofworld.com\/answers\/?p=732"},"modified":"2021-03-12T07:50:32","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T11:50:32","slug":"western-sahara-sovereign-part-morocco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mapsofworld.com\/answers\/regions\/western-sahara-sovereign-part-morocco\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Western Sahara a Sovereign State or Part of Morocco?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 5\/5 - (6 votes) <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\"Map<\/a>
Western Sahara is under administrative control of Morocco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Western Sahara is neither a sovereign state nor a part of Morocco but remains under administrative control of Morocco.<\/p>\n

Western Sahara is a territory in North Africa that lies along the Atlantic Coast and shares its borders with Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania.<\/p>\n

The political status of Western Sahara is presently under dispute. Morocco claims Western Sahara as its territory, while the Polisario Front, comprising local people known as Sahrawis, is fighting to claim independent nation status for Western Sahara.<\/p>\n

The total population is around 570,000 with majority being local Sahrawis, tribes that originally migrated from Yemen. Due to harsh arid conditions across most of its territory, only around a fifth of the total land is used for agriculture. The country is known to have large deposits of iron ore and phosphates along with unexplored offshore oil reserves.
\nIn 1884, the Spanish first arrived here and colonized the territory for around 100 years calling it Spanish Sahara. The Polisario Front came into existence in 1973 to launch the Sahrawi Movement, a fight for independence.<\/p>\n

In 1975, Morocco launched the Green March into Western Sahara to stake its claim over the entire territory. Over 350,000 Moroccan civilian volunteers, supported by Moroccan soldiers, crossed over into Western Sahara.<\/p>\n

Facing repeated militant attacks over a period, Spain eventually decided to exit the region and signed an agreement Morocco and Mauritania to hand over control to both countries. Polisario Front was not party to this agreement and therefore never recognized Morocco or Mauritania authority. Mauritania soon decided to exit the territory leaving Morocco with complete control of Western Sahara.<\/p>\n

The resulting guerilla warfare launched by the Polisario Front lasted sixteen years until ceasefire was brokered by the UN in 1991. Years of conflict resulted in thousands of Sahrawis being displaced and have since taken refuge, under UN supervision, at camps in Tindouf, near the Algerian border.<\/p>\n

Stakeholders in Western Sahara<\/strong><\/p>\n