Río de Oro
Río de Oro (
The Spanish name is derived from its previous name Rio do Ouro, given to it by its Portuguese discoverer
Occupying the southern part of Western Sahara, the territory lies between 26° to the north and 21° 20′ to the south. The area is roughly 184,000 km2 (71,000 sq mi), making it approximately two thirds of the entire Western Sahara.[2] The former provincial capital founded by the Spanish was Villa Cisneros, which was renamed under Moroccan administration in 1976 "ad-Dakhla".[3]
The
In 1975, as Spain retreated from the territory, Western Sahara was split under the Madrid Accords between Mauritania and Morocco, even if this division was bitterly contested by the Polisario Front. The dividing line ran halfway through Río de Oro, with Morocco taking the northern part plus Saguia el-Hamra, and Mauritania annexing the lower third of the colony as a northern province called Tiris al-Gharbiyya (Western Tiris). Its provincial capital was already called Dakhla. After a disastrous four-year war with the Polisario, Mauritania relinquished Tiris al-Gharbiyya, withdrew from Western Sahara, and left Morocco and the Polisario as the sole belligerents in the conflict, which is not yet resolved; a cease-fire has been in effect since 1991.[4]
This area is today divided by the
References
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 357.
- ISBN 9780230271005.
- ISBN 9780786460977.
- ISBN 978-0-7397-1514-7.
- ^ Military Agreement No. 1 Archived 2008-05-11 at the Wayback Machine