Morocco–Western Sahara border

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Map of the Morocco-Western Sahara border

The Morocco–Western Sahara border is 444 kilometres (276 mi) in length and runs from Atlantic Ocean in the west, to the tripoint with Algeria in the east.[1] The border has existed purely in a de jure sense since Morocco's annexation of Western Sahara in 1976–1979.

Description

The border starts in the west at the Atlantic coast and consists of a single horizontal line, terminating in the east at the Algerian tripoint.

Sahara desert
.

History

The border emerged during the '

Rio de Oro colony the following year.[3][2]

Former Spanish territories in north-west Africa

On 27 June 1900 France and Spain signed a treaty which created a border between Rio de Oro and

Spanish Morocco), the exclave of Ifni and the Cape Juby/Tarfaya Strip (aka the 'Southern Zone'), the latter forming what is now the far south of Morocco proper, between the Draa River and the Saguia el-Hamra border at 27°40'N agreed upon in 1904.[3][2]

From 1946 to 1958 Spanish Morocco, the Tarfaya Strip, Ifni, Rio de Oro and Saguia el Hamra were united as

administrative reorganisations ignoring the border entirely. Polisario forces declared a Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic based on the boundaries of Spanish Sahara, thus starting a long war against Morocco and Mauritania. Unwilling to continue the conflict, Mauritania pulled out of their zone
in 1979, which was then annexed by Morocco.

Map showing the berm - Morocco controls all areas west of it, Polisario those east

In the 1980s, in an effort to control the territory and stymie the Polisario, Morocco began building a number of elaborate walls (or 'berms'), eventually completing the Moroccan Western Sahara Wall in 1987.[8] Morocco and Polisario signed a ceasefire agreement in 1991 ending the war; Morocco retained control of areas west of the wall (roughly 80% of Western Sahara), with Polisario controlling those east. At present the dispute remains unresolved.

References

  1. ^ CIA World Factbook – Western Sahara, archived from the original on 12 June 2007, retrieved 23 January 2020
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Brownlie, Ian (1979). African Boundaries: A Legal and Diplomatic Encyclopedia. Institute for International Affairs, Hurst and Co. pp. 149–58.
  3. ^ a b c d e International Boundary Study No. 9 – Morocco-Western Sahara Boundary (PDF), 14 September 1961, retrieved 23 January 2020
  4. hdl:10486/686245
    .
  5. ^ Robert Rézette, The Western Sahara and the Frontiers of Morocco (Nouvelles Éditions Latines, 1975), p. 101.
  6. ^ José Luis Villanova, "La organización política del territorio de Ifni duranta la dominación colonial española (1934–1969)", Anales: Revista de Estudios Ibéricos e Iberoamericanos 3 (2007): 49–82, esp. 62–72.
  7. ^ "Case Summaries : WESTERN SAHARA: Advisory Opinion". icj-cij.org. International Court of Justice. 16 October 1975. Archived from the original on 11 February 2002.
  8. ^ Milestones of the conflict Archived 21 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine, page 2. Website of the United Nations MINURSO mission.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Morocco–Western_Sahara_border&oldid=1185533569"