About Western Sahara
A former Spanish Colony located in North-western Africa. Western Sahara is often called “Africa’s Last Colony” as it is the only remaining territory in Africa that has yet to be decolonised according to the principles of the UN Charter.
Human Rights
by Saharawi women in the struggle for self-determination and the human rights abuses they have suffered as activists under the Moroccan regime,. Meanwhile, over 500 Saharawis remain “disappeared” since Morocco’s occupation began and many others were tortured and died in horrific conditions in underground detention centres between 1975 and 1991.
To learn more about the human rights story, past and present, check out the reports shared here. Visit the Adala blog , a human rights advocacy organisation led by Saharawis. to find out about the current situation.
Under the Moroccan occupation, Saharawis have become second class citizens in their homeland, deprived of freedom of expression, movement and association. Independence aspirations expressed in any form are met with brutal repression and no independent journalists and observers are allowed into the territory.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International and others have documented the systematic violations of Saharawi human rights over the years. The in-depth report “Let Everything Come to Light” brings into particular focus the prominent role played
“In Agdez, the way we were treated was indescribable, there are no words to tell everything that we Saharawis experienced in that prison. When we told them about a death they came and broke that person’s spine in order to be sure they were really dead. Everything was an insult to life, to the most basic human rights.”
Testimony from “Let Everything Come to Light”
Understanding the Conflict
The roots of the conflict in Western Sahara’s lie in the territory’s colonial past under Spain. It is a story of a people’s unwavering quest for freedom pitted against the forces of colonial betrayal and regional expansionist ambitions.. It is also a story that reveals the hypocrisy and indifference of the international community to flagrant violations of international law and human rights perpetuated by the Moroccan state against the indigenous Saharawis.
Like many other colonised peoples, the Saharawis began to to seek their independence in the 60’s, encouraged by the principles enshrined in the UN Charter on Decolonization. Following the brutal repression of their first peaceful attempt, the Saharawi launched the national liberation movement-the Polisario Front- in 1973, to end Spanish rule by armed struggle. Pressured by the UN and the Polisario fighters, Spain soon relented and agreed to hold a referendum for self-determination to vote for their independence. Instead of this expected outcome, however, the Saharawis found themselves victims of unfolding tragic events that divided both their people and land in two. By the end of 1975, Spanish colonialism had been replaced by the forceful annexation of their homeland by two neighbouring countries, war had erupted in the region and over half the Saharawi population were forcefully displaced, becoming refugees in harsh desert camps in South West Algeria, where they remain to date. Despite more than five decades of struggle, the Saharawis remain steadfast in their determination to fulfil their historic rights to self-determination and end Morocco’s illegal occupation in their homeland.
Below we present the history of the conflict through a timeline that divides the story into distinct phases and highlights Saharawi agency in their struggle. The first phase begins with the first UN Resolution on Decolonisation and goes up to the end of Spain’s colonial rule. The next phase focuses on the 16 years of war in Western Sahara. The following phase covers the long years of the ceasefire and repeated failed attempts by the UN to hold a self-determination referendum. The final phase begins with the resumption of armed conflict in 2020 up to the present.
“The thousand-mile journey that the Polisario Front has taken over the past decades to assert the Saharawi people's right to self-determination and independence would not have happened without the giant first step taken by the Liberation Movement (1967-1970) in shaping consciousness, organizing the masses, and storming the field at zero hour."
Ubbi Bushraya Bachiri (Polisario Front Representative)
Why this History Matters:
For the past 50 years, the Saharawi people have lived between occupation and exile, facing repression, dispossession, cultural erasure and marginalization. But through all this, they have kept alive a powerful dream: to one day live in freedom on their ancestral lands. By sharing their story, we honour their courage, amplify their voices, and stand in solidarity with their pursuit of dignity, justice, and peace. But most of all, we seek to ensure that their struggle is neither forgotten nor rendered invisible.
Below we have created a timeline of the regional history for those interested in a longer view and understanding. The timeline starts in prehistoric time and goes to the end of the Spanish colonial period.
PRE-COLONIAL ERA
The Sanhaja Berbers, ancestors of Saharawis, inhabited Western Sahara since possibly the Neolithic era, facilitating trans-Saharan trade linking West Africa with North African Muslim cultures. Between the 11th-13th centuries, Arab Beni Hassan tribes from Yemen conquered and Islamized them, creating a cultural fusion reflected in Hassaniye language. The region evolved from lush grassland to desert (8,500-3,500 BCE), prompting nomadic lifestyles. Islam spread via trade and conquest (7th-8th centuries). The Sanhaja formed the Almoravid dynasty (1040-1147), conquering modern Morocco, Western Sahara, and southern Spain, promoting Maliki Islamic jurisprudence. Successive Berber dynasties—Almohad (1121-1269) and Marinid (1269-1548)—held regional dominance for several centuries.
EARLY EUROPEAN CONTACT
The Age of Exploration (15th-17th centuries) was an era when European powers—Spain, England, France, Portugal, the Dutch—travelled afar seeking riches, resulting in genocide and exploitation for indigenous peoples around the world. For the Saharawis, Portuguese and Spanish arrival in the late 15th century marked a transformative era of struggle and revolution. Portuguese explorer Antam Goncalvez kidnapped two Berbers in 1441, initiating the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Spain constructed its first outpost in Western Sahara in 1476 and colonized the Canary Islands. The Dutch occupied the southern region of Western Sahara known as Rio del Oro (1638), followed by English (1665) and French control (1727). The 1767 Marrakesh Treaty confirmed Morocco's Sultan had no sovereignty the region of modern day Western Sahara. In 1869 the religious figure of Sheikh Malainine founded Smara as a r center, which later becoming a Spanish garrison town..
SPANISH COLONIALISM
Spain claimed Western Sahara at the 1884 Berlin Conference, formalizing colonial rule after years of seeking control over trade routes and a base to protect its interests in the Canary Islands. By 1934 Spain had pacified the Saharawi tribes and discovery of rich phosphate deposits at Bu Craa (1948) intensified colonial economic interest in the territory. In 1957, a year after Morocco gained its independence from France, it started to claim Western Sahara as part of Greater Morocco on the basis of alleged historical conquests. In 1958 Spain turned Western Sahara into its 53rd province integrating and began phosphate mining in 1962. This coincided with several years of drought which had forced the nomadic Saharawis into urban centers, turning them into a cheap and ready source of labour. As Spain began to invest more and more in developing its colony, calls from the UN began to grow louder for the decolonization of Western Sahara from 1965 onward.
Meanwhile, the winds of change sweeping across the African continent in the 60’s sparked the rise of Saharawi independence aspirations and Harakat Tahrir was created by Mohamed Bassiri in 1969. However, the movement was brutally crushed by Spanish colonial forces at a peaceful demonstration onJune 17, 1970 in the neighbourhood of Zemla in the Al Auin capital of Western Sahara. Seventeen peaceful demonstrators were killed and Bassiri was disappeared. This set the stage for the creation of the Polisario Front in 1973, which opted to fight for independence by armed struggle. By the end of 1974, Spain had agreed to begin the process of decolonisation by organising a referendum for Saharawi self-determination. Adamant Moroccan and Mauritanian sovereignty claims however halted this process and deliberated on by the International Court of Justice over nine months ruling on Oct 16 1975 that there was no evidence supporting these claims and reafirrming Saharawi self-determination rights.. Sadly, the subsequent Moroccan Green March on Nov 6 and the Madrid Accords of Nov 14 scuppered an independence outcome for the Saharawis and instead their homeland became partitioned sparking war and the exodus of Saharawi refugees into Algeria
