Smara - Laayoune - landmines?
 

Guys, I am working on this year's track for Morocco. As You can see I am thinking of two possible ways to cross from Smara to Laayoune. The yellow one is quite straightforward, well known, frequent ridden, still a wonderful ride. The part of dark grey one is a track I once found on wikiloc, it is meandering through rough hamada planes.
The question is, as it is known as "useful triangle" is it a region where one should be afraid of landmines? I know Western Sahara is a landmines region, for sure south regions down from Smara, but I doubt if area west from Smara still is? On satellite photos there are numerous tracks visible...

Brief history: "By 1982, the POLI-
SARIO had managed to win the war
against Mauritania in the south and
had the effective control of most of
the territory initially occupied by
Morocco. Morocco only had com-
plete control over the so-called “use-
ful triangle”, where the phosphate
mines are located. It was then that
Morocco designed a new strategy to
extend its control over a larger part
of the territory. Between 1982 and
1987, the Moroccan armed forces
erected six military walls: more than
2700 kilometres of defensive struc-
tures, between three and four me-
tres high. They are composed of
sand and stones and a system of
anti-tank trenches, and are defended
by over 130,000 soldiers stationed all
along the wall. A further defensive
Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos GEES element is the existence of mine-
fields positioned in front of the
walls for their entire length."

This allows me thinking that useful triangle may be free of landmines. What is your knowldege?

?

https://scontent.fwaw3-2.fna.fbcdn.n...KQ&oe=67F81AFA

The problem with the grey route may be differing accurate route than the one shown on Wikiloc some time ago.local herding and mineral exploration will have changed them.Also,is it shown on any Gandini info for this area.
If you are tight for time it may be best to stick with what you know of the yellow route.
As for mines,the problem is always the uncertainty.There is further advice on the Sticky thread above.

The sticky thread Tony refers to is here: Is this a land mine

@RuggedHall
You may want to read this (amongst so many other) articles about landmines in Morocco- the first paragraph under 'about' may throw some light on the numbers ...
Consider that there is no map or satnav data in existence which can guarantee the precise location of each-
Remembering that it only takes one...
Happy trails!

Topical:
Arte has released today a short documentary about Polisario, life in Western Sahara and... landmines
Link below (in French):
https://youtu.be/w6D3mpzM_Ak?si=MGGHgbZiDuTDItAb

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