Spain surrendered the Spanish Sahara in 1975 when it signed the Madrid Accords agreeing to divide the territory between Morocco and Mauritania. Morocco had been claiming the return of the Sahara ever since independence in 1956. It's a valuable piece of real estate and one much desired by Algeria as it would give the country access to the Atlantic seaboard, hence their support of the Polisario Front which would deliver that.

I have several books and treatises on the subject, the best of which is Dr Ali Bahaijoub's 'Western Sahara Conflict' but the reality is that everyone who puts pen to paper, including the author of the article above, has a bias one way or another.

What these articles totally ignore is the human cost of the extended dithering. The 'refugee' camps in Algeria administered by Polisario are considered by many to be no more than concentration camps, with severe restrictions on the 100,000 inhabitants.

The vast majority of these people have never seen Western Sahara—they were born IN the camps, or moved there from sub-Saharan Africa.

It's time to be pragmatic about the situation—stop focusing on what happened in the past and start building for the future. The Moroccan autonomy plan is the only viable solution on the table and most of the world except Algeria accepts that. If this plan were to come to fruition I would like to think that Morocco would truly welcome these people to the 'Southern Provinces' and provide decent housing and employment possibilities.

I don't normally engage with political-type discussions on HUBB, my contribution above is focused on the need to provide a better life for the people, some of whom have spent 50 years sitting in a dust bowl in the desert.

Refugee camp wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahrawi_refugee_camps

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