Tindouf Province
Tindouf Province
ولاية تندوف | ||
---|---|---|
Municipalities 2 | |
Tindouf, also written Tinduf (
History
During the Zayyanid period, the Draa region which surrounds the Tindouf province was governed by a sheikh of the Zayyanids.[2]
The town of Tindouf was rebuilt near an isolated Saharan oasis in 1852 by members of the Tajakant tribe,[3][4] but sacked and destroyed by the Reguibat tribe in 1895.[5] It remained deserted until French troops led by colonel Trinquet arrived in the area in 1934 and attached the region to the French Algeria territory.[6]
The province houses army and airforce bases for the
In a process beginning in 1969 and finalized during the
From 1974, refugees from the contested Spanish Sahara started arriving to the Tindouf area, following an earlier wave from the 1958 unrest. This turned into a major exodus from 1975 onwards, when Morocco and Mauritania seized control of what was then called Western Sahara, and Algeria retaliated by allowing the Polisario Front, a nationalist Sahrawi movement, to use the area as its main base.[12] Sahrawi refugee camps were established in Tindouf in 1975-6, such as Smara refugee camp and El Aaiun refugee camp. The Polisario remains in the province, running the large refugee camps located south of Tindouf city.
The European Commission refers to the Sahrawi refugees as the "forgotten refugees".[13]
The province was created from Béchar Province in 1984.
Administrative divisions
The province contains one
District | Commune | Arabic |
---|---|---|
Tindouf District
|
Tindouf | تندوف |
Oum El Assel | أم العسل |
See also
References
- ^ Sahrawis are not legally recognized as dwellers of the province but rather as illegal or temporary refugees and migrants in Sahrawi refugee camps. Their exact number is unknown.
- ^ a b c Office National des Statistiques, Recensement General de la Population et de l’Habitat 2008 Archived 2008-07-24 at the Wayback Machine Preliminary results of the 2008 population census. Accessed on 2008-07-02.
- ^ Histoire es berbères, 4: et des dynasties musulmanes de l'afrique septentrionale. Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad Ibn Jaldun. Imprimerie du Gouvernement.
- ISBN 978-0-299-07360-2. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
- ^ Institut des hautes-études marocaines (1930). Hespéris: archives berbères et bulletin de l'Institut des hautes-études marocaines. Emile Larose. p. 46. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
- ISBN 978-2-600-04495-0. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
- ISBN 978-2-600-04495-0. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-275-96936-3. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-7099-3435-6. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-415-42920-7. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
- ISBN 978-1-85109-124-9. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
- ISBN 978-92-1-070980-4. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
- ^ Council on Foreign Relations (1979). Foreign affairs. Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
- ^ "Algeria". 3 October 2013.
External links
- Media related to Tindouf Province at Wikimedia Commons