Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic: A country that doesn’t exist
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Pick up any map (or rather Google any map) in the world and you will not see the borders of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Yet on the ground, to the south of Morocco, the reality is quite different.
Tucked away in the Sahara Desert away from the beautiful beaches and the picturesque Atlas Mountains, which Westerners tend to be more familiar with, is the territory of Western Sahara. A sparsely populated area with only 600,000 inhabitants and covering just over a 100,000 miles, Western Sahara has been the subject of a property dispute between the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front, a local pro-independence group.
The people of Western Sahara-like their Moroccan counterparts are mainly Muslims and Arabic speaking. Western Sahara has a complicated past, to say the least. It was colonized by Spain in 1884 and then controlled in part by Morocco and partly by Mauritania after the Spanish withdrawal in 1975. Facing the pressure of a guerilla struggle by the Polisario Front, Mauritania relinquished its control in 1979.
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Morocco, however, maintained its presence in the region and the Polisario Front continued its armed struggle. In 1991, however, the U.N. intervened and brokered a cease-fire between the 2 parties.
Today, the Polisario Front controls only a tiny strip of Western Sahara with Morocco controlling the rest. The Front, however, deems the entirety of Western Sahara to be a part of the proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Morocco has even built a sand wall which separates the Moroccan and Polisario-controlled portions of Western Sahara. This massive wall spans 1,675 miles and is guarded by over a 100,000 Moroccan Soldiers.
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