Western Sahara War

Spanish Sahara In 1884 Spain claimed a protectorate over the coast from Cape Bojador to Cap Blanc. Later, the Spanish extended their area of control. In 1958 Spain joined the previously separate districts of Saguia el-Hamra (in the north) and Río de Oro (in the south) to form the province of Spanish Sahara. Raids and rebellions by the indigenous Saharan population kept the Spanish forces out of much of the territory for a long time. Ma al-Aynayn, the Saharan Caïd of Smara, started an uprising against France in the 1910s, at a time when the French had expanded their influence and control in North-West Africa, he died in the same year and his son Ahmed al-Hiba succeeded him. French forces defeated him when he tried to conquer Marrakesh, and in retaliation, severely damaged the holy city of Smara in 1913. Not until the second destruction of Smara in 1934, by joint Spanish and French forces, did the territory finally become subdued. Another uprising in 1956–1958, initiated by the Moroccan Army of Liberation, led to heavy fighting, but eventually the Spanish forces regained control, again with French aid. However, unrest simmered, and in 1967 the Harakat Tahrir arose to challenge Spanish rule peacefully. After the events of the Zemla Intifada in 1970, when Spanish police destroyed the organization and "disappeared" its founder, Muhammad Bassiri, Sahrawi nationalism again took a militant turn. Conception of the Polisario Front In 1971 a group of young Sahrawi students began organizing what came to be known as The Embryonic Movement for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro. After attempting in vain to gain backing from several Arab governments, including both Algeria and Morocco, but only drawing faint notices of support from Libya and Mauritania, the movement eventually relocated to Spanish-controlled Western Sahara to start an armed rebellion. The beginnings of armed struggle The Polisario Front was formally constituted on 10 May 1973 in the Mauritanian city of Zouérat, with the express intention of militarily forcing an end to Spanish colonization. Its first Secretary General was El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed. On 20 May he led the Khanga raid, Polisario's first armed action, in which a Spanish post manned by a team of Tropas Nomadas (Sahrawi-staffed auxiliary forces) was overrun and rifles seized. Polisario then gradually gained control over large swaths of desert countryside, and its power grew from early 1975 when the Tropas Nomadas began deserting to the Polisario, bringing weapons and training with them. At this point, Polisario's manpower included perhaps 800 men, but they were backed by a larger network of supporters. A UN visiting mission headed by Simeon Aké that was conducted in June 1975 concluded that Sahrawi support for independence (as opposed to Spanish rule or integration with a neighbouring country) amounted to an "overwhelming consensus" and that the Polisario Front was by far the most powerful political force in the country. == Timeline ==

Spanish withdrawal While Spain started negotiating a handover of power in mid 1975, it ceded the administrative control of the territory to Mauritania and Morocco only after signing the Madrid Accords. However, on 31 October 1975, Moroccan troops crossed into the territory from the north-east, advancing towards Mahbes and Farciya. The Moroccan government organized the Green March of some 350,000 Moroccan citizens, escorted by around 20,000 troops, who entered Western Sahara, trying to establish Moroccan presence. The United Nations did not officially recognize the accord, considering Spain as the administrative power of the territory. In late 1975, as a result of the Moroccan advance, tens of thousands of Sahrawis fled Morocco-controlled cities into the desert, building up improvised refugee camps in Amgala, Tifariti and Umm Dreiga. Moroccan invasion On 11 December 1975, the first Moroccan troops arrived in El Aaiún, and fighting erupted with the Polisario Front. On 26 February 1976, Spain officially announced its full withdrawal from the area. which was unable to fend off the attacks. After repeated strikes at the country's principal source of income, the iron mines of Zouerate, the Government was nearly incapacitated by the lack of funds and the ensuing internal disorder. Ethnic unrest in the Mauritanian Armed Forces also strongly contributed to the ineffectiveness of the army: forcibly conscripted black Africans from the south of the country resisted getting involved in what they viewed as a northern intra-Arab dispute, and the tribes of northern Mauritania often sympathized with Polisario, fearing possible Moroccan regional ambitions and presenting perceived increasing dependence of the Daddah regime on Moroccan support. In 1977, France intervened after a group of French technicians was taken prisoner during a raid on the Zouerate iron mines, codenaming its involvement Opération Lamantin. The French Air Force deployed SEPECAT Jaguar jets to Mauritania in 1978 under the orders of President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, which repeatedly bombed Polisario columns headed for Mauritania with napalm. The Polisario Front launched a raid on the capital Nouakchott, during which Polisario chief and leader El Ouali was killed, and was replaced by Mohamed Abdelaziz, with no letup in the pace of attacks. Under continued pressure, the Daddah regime finally fell in summer 1978 to a coup d'état led by war-weary military officers, who immediately agreed to a ceasefire with the Polisario. A comprehensive peace treaty was signed on 5 August 1979, in which the new Mauritanian government recognized Sahrawi rights to Western Sahara and relinquished its own claims. Mauritania withdrew all its forces and would later proceed to formally recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, causing a massive rupture in relations with Morocco. King Hassan II of Morocco immediately claimed the area of Western Sahara evacuated by Mauritania (Tiris al-Gharbiya, roughly corresponding to the southern half of Río de Oro), which was unilaterally annexed by Morocco on 11 August 1979. Stalemate (1980s) by the Polisario Front during the war From the mid-1980s Morocco largely had kept Polisario troops off by building a huge berm or sand wall (the Moroccan Wall). The Moroccan army stationed a number of troops roughly the same size as the entire Sahrawi population to defend the wall, enclosing the Southern Provinces, the economically useful parts of Western Sahara (Bou Craa, El-Aaiun, Smara etc.). This stalemated the war, with no side able to achieve decisive gains, but artillery strikes and sniping attacks by the guerrillas continued, and Morocco was economically and politically strained by the war. Morocco faced heavy burdens due to the economic costs of its massive troop deployments along the Wall. Economic and military aid was sent to Morocco by Saudi Arabia, France and the United States to relieve the situation but matters gradually became unsustainable for all parties involved. Escalation (1989–1991) On 7 October 1989, Polisario launched a massive attack against Moroccan troops in Guelta Zemmour (Centre of Western Sahara) and Algeria but sustained heavy casualties and withdrawn after leaving more than 18 tanks burning and a dozen more vehicles. This setback led the Polisario to consider a ceasefire. The 1991 Tifariti offensive was the last military operation and successful maneuver in the Western Sahara War launched by Moroccan forces against the Sahrawi guerrilla fighters of the Polisario Front. During August–September 1991 the Royal Moroccan Army (RMA) conducted offensive operations in the areas of Mehaires, Tifariti, and Bir Lahlou and cleared the area of any Polisario presence. == Cease-fire and aftermath ==

in the territory of Western Sahara, during the Western Sahara war (1975–1991). In yellow, the territory under control by the Polisario Front. A cease-fire between the Polisario and Morocco, monitored by MINURSO (UN) came into effect on 6 September 1991, with the promise of a referendum on independence the following year. The referendum, however, stalled over disagreements on voter rights, and numerous attempts at restarting the process (most significantly the launching of the 2003 Baker plan) seem to have failed. The prolonged cease-fire has held without major disturbances, but Polisario has repeatedly threatened to resume fighting if no break-through occurs. Morocco's withdrawal from both the terms of the original Settlement Plan and the Baker Plan negotiations in 2003 left the peace-keeping mission without a political agenda: this further increased the risks of renewed war. In mid-October 2020 tensions deepened between Morocco and the Polisario Front, when the Sahrawi refugees in Tindouf, Algeria, which houses about 100,000 Sahrawi refugees, passing through SADR-controlled territories, camped and blocked the road, creating a large caravan of vehicles and blocking traffic in the region. Morocco, which regards the region as vital to trade with sub-Saharan Africa, accused the Polisario Front of infiltrating the buffer zone and "carrying out acts of banditry" in Guerguerat. On 13 November 2020 clashes between Moroccan and the Polisario Front forces began in Guerguerat, but since has spread along the Moroccan Western Sahara Wall. Morocco claimed that it had acted in self-defence while the Polisario Front accused Morocco of violating the ceasefire by entering the buffer zone, and urged the United Nations to intervene. On 8 April 2021, the head of the Sahrawi National Guard, Addah Al-Bendir, was killed by what reports claim to be a drone strike while attempting a raid on Moroccan positions along the berm sand wall. == International incidents ==

On 17 January 1980, the Spanish destroyer Almirante Ferrandiz was machine-gunned by a Moroccan Mirage fighter aircraft, from the southern coast of Western Sahara. The Spanish destroyer had received an SOS from a Spanish fishing vessel that had been previously detained by a Moroccan patrol boat. In 1984, Polisario shot down a Belgian airplane as well as two Moroccan aircraft. The German government, which did not recognize Morocco's claim to Western Sahara at the time and remained neutral in the conflict, heavily criticized the incident. == See also ==