Western Sahara Border Dispute

Western Sahara is an area located on the northwest coast of Africa made up of mostly desert. It is bordered by Algeria on the west and Mauritania on the south. Currently, about 20 percent of the region is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic while the remaining 80 percent is controlled by Morocco. Its major natural resource is phosphate. Its surface area is about 266,000 square kilometers and is very sparsely populated.

The Western Sahara conflict is a struggle between Morocco, Mauritania and the Polisario Front in the region. Up till the 1960's, Western Sahara was a Spanish colony called the Spanish Sahara. On February 26, 1976, Spain withdrew from the territory. Spain did not hold a referendum on self-determination before withdrawing and instead gave Morocco and Mauritania administrative power over the region. Immediately, Morocco and Mauritania divided up the region, with Morocco taking two-thirds and Mauritania taking one.

The United Nations, however, frowned on this, saying that the indigenous people of Western Sahara had the right to self-determination. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (otherwise known as the Polisario Front), on the other hand, declared the region - which it has since named the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (S.A.D.R) - independent, inciting a war against the two occupying states. Mauritania, the weaker of the two states, quickly gave in to the Polisario Front and gave up its claims to the region. On 5 August 1979, they signed a peace treaty with Polisario. Morocco, however, continued the war and even went so far as to take over the part originally governed by Mauritania.

The OAU and UN have repeatedly tried to resolve the issue with little success. Morocco even withdrew from the OAU when the body allowed the S.A.D.R. to have a representative at their 20th summit in Addis Ababa. Morocco continues to fortify the land with walls and berms. Eventually, Algeria became the primary supporter of the Polisario Front and officially recognized them as a sovereign state. 

• Polisario Front The Sahrawi are the original inhabitants of the land and therefore have the right to self-determination; the right to decide whether they wanted to be taken under the wings of Morocco or to form their own government. After all, they are different people from the Moroccans. A government requires the consent of the people to be legitimate, and since Morocco doesn’t have that, its take-over of Western Sahara is illegal.

• Morocco The Moroccans marched for annexation of Western Sahara from the Spanish empire. They also cooperated with United Nations in peacefully transitioning the land from Spanish rule to Moroccan rule without the use of guerrilla warfare, as the newly-formed Polisario Front was doing at the time.

• Polisario Front On 16 October 1975, the International Court of Justice stated that it found no proof ‘of any ties of territorial sovereignty’ between the Western Sahara and either Morocco or Mauritania, but that there were ‘indications of a legal tie of allegiance between the [Moroccan] Sultan (King) and some, though only some, of the tribes of the territory’ (Pazzanita and Hodges 1994, p. 228). Despite this, however King Hasan of Morocco marched into Western Sahara in a peaceful ‘Green March’ where fighting broke out between them and the Polisario front.

• Morocco The Sahrawi people have never held exclusive claim to Western Sahara. They have never even fully occupied the land, but have instead resided on the Algerian border. Today, it is estimated that only about 30 percent of all Sahrawi people live in Western Sahara, whereas the rest are scattered among Algeria, Mauritania, and Spain.  Source 

• Morocco Despite accepting a peace deal directly from the United Nations, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (formed by Polisario) soon broke the peace by obstructing international trade between Morocco and Mauritania. This led to Morocco taking military action to revitalize trade, upon which the Polisario Front renounced the peace deal entirely.

• Polisario Front Morocco exploited its position as an independent state and had support from powerful allies. In 1975 US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, had backed Morocco's and Mauritania's partition plan because he did not want “another Angola on the Eastern flank of the Atlantic Ocean”. On the other hand, The Polisario front was only recognized by a few Third World countries and only received a limited number of Soviet weapons through Algeria.

• Morocco The world benefits by recognizing Morocco as the rightful owner of Western Sahara. They have already demonstrated healthy bonds with other states (like Mauritania and Spain) and a strong economic presence. Morocco has, on multiple occasions, begun constructing resource transport lines for the exportation of Western Sahara's natural resources, such as phosphorus and iron ore. The attempts are almost always met with resistance from the Sahrawi, who have made little-to-no effort to establish international relations

• Polisario Front The war has not given the Sahrawi an opportunity to develop themselves, let alone the international system. Their only natural resource is being exploited by Morocco for its own benefit.