Western Sahara: Africa's Last Colony
Western Sahara is a United Nations-designated non-self-governing territory in northwestern Africa, often called 'Africa's last colony.' With an area of 272,000 square kilometers and an estimated population of 600,000, it is the most sparsely populated territory in Africa. The region was a Spanish colony until 1975, when Spain transferred administration to Morocco and Mauritania despite an ICJ advisory opinion denying their sovereignty. A war ensued, and the Polisario Front proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). Today, Morocco controls about 70% of the territory, while the SADR, backed by Algeria, administers the rest. A UN-sponsored ceasefire and referendum plan has stalled since 1991.
Western Sahara is the last African colonial state yet to achieve independence and has been dubbed 'Africa's last colony.'
- Arubis
Dakhla is actually pretty tourist-friendly, and spending time there will quickly do away with the notion that nobody lives in Western Sahara. It's well-known for kiteboarding and windsurfing, since it's got pretty consistent wind and surf and a hot-comfortably dry climate. Pretty heavy police presence and you're supporting Moroccan arguable-occupation by heading there, though, so it's a tradeoff.
- rockostrich
Not sure if this is some kind of Baader-Meinhof phenomenon or if OP just also did the NYT crossword this morning.
- tiagod
A series of enormous sand walls separate the morocco-occupied region from the sahrawi controlled region. These are one of the largest minefields in the world.
It's impressive to look at satellite images of this. Just a huge sand wall, with hundreds and hundreds of military outposts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moroccan_Western_Sahara_wall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Western_sahara_walls_moro...
- 1970-01-01
It is missing the wonderful and still unexplored archeology:
https://www.livescience.com/64677-stone-structures-discovere...
- thestu
Skeletons on the Zahara is a fantastic book related to this part of the world -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeletons_on_the_Zahara