I have written many times about the situation of the country of Western Sahara….

I write about this situation because when I was working in North Africa and the Middle East I was fortunate enough to draw an assignment in Western Sahara….while there I was introduced to the people and culture of the region…..my assignment was to get in touch with the group that was fighting Morocco which was claiming the area known as Western Sahara….Located in northern Africa on the Atlantic Ocean, Western Sahara is surrounded by Algeria to the east, Morocco to the north, and Mauritania to the south. About the size of Colorado, it is mostly low, flat desert with some small mountains in the south and northeast.

Maybe a little history will help with this…….

Little is known about Western Sahara before the 4th century B.C., when trade with Europe began. During the Middle Ages it was occupied first by Berbers and then by the Arabic-speaking Muslim Bedouins. In the 19th century the Spanish laid claim to the southern coastal region, called Rio de Oro, and later occupied the northern interior region, Saguia el Hamra, in 1934. The Spanish formally united the two regions, and it became known as Spanish Sahara in 1958. Both Morocco and Mauritania sought to control the territory, and when the Spanish departed in 1976, they divided the territory between them. In the meantime, the indigenous Saharawis began fighting for independence. In 1976, the insurgents, called the Polisario Front, declared a government-in-exile (the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic) from their base in Algeria. Mauritania reached a peace agreement with the Polisario in 1979, but Morocco then seized the land given up by Mauritania and now exerts administrative control over the entire region. The Polisario Front fought Morocco to a stalemate and agreed in Sept. 1991 to a cease-fire, which was contingent on a referendum regarding independence. For more than a decade, however, the UN has failed to hold the referendum; disputes over voter eligibility have been the major stumbling block, as well as Morocco’s opposition to the referendum. In Aug. 2001, former secretary of state James A. Baker, special UN envoy to the Western Sahara, proposed that instead of a referendum on independence, Western Sahara consider becoming an autonomous region of Morocco. The Polisario rejected the new proposal, which it saw as a reversal of the UN’s decadelong promise to hold a referendum on self-determination. In 2002, King Mohammed VI of Morocco reasserted that he will not “renounce an inch of” the Western Sahara.

It is beautiful in the desert……the colors and the sounds are something that cannot be described accurately…

For forty years the people of Western Sahara have been fighting for their independence and the world looks the other way….it is not important enough for us to care…….especially in these uncertain times and the rise of terrorists groups….all eyes are on these groups and not looking at the suffering of those in refugee camps……

Source: 40 years of hurt: The never-ending scandal of the Western Sahara | African Arguments

Now the king of Morocco has come out about Western Sahara…..

Morocco’s king has renewed Rabat’s insistence that there will be no compromise on the kingdom’s claim to sovereignty over the Western Sahara, vowing that he will offer no more than autonomy to end the four-decade deadlock over the region.

“This initiative is the maximum Morocco can offer,” Morocco’s King Mohammed said late on Friday, referring to the autonomy plan for the region.

Source: Morocco’s king rules out compromise over Western Sahara – Al Jazeera English

The conflict will continue and the people of Western Sahara will still not have the one thing that all people deserves……Independence!