Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

"SADR" redirects here. For other uses, see SADR (disambiguation).

Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
  • الجمهورية العربية الصحراوية الديمقراطية (Arabic)
    al-Jumhūrīyah al-‘Arabīyah aṣ-Ṣaḥrāwīyah ad-Dīmuqrāṭīyah
  • República Árabe Saharaui Democrática (Spanish)
Motto: 
حرية، ديمقراطية، وحدة (Arabic)
Libertad, Democracia, Unidad (Spanish)
"Freedom, Democracy, Unity"
Anthem: يا بني الصحراء (Arabic)
Yā Banī aṣ-Ṣaḥrāʾ
¡O hijos del Sáhara! (Spanish)
"Oh, Sons of the Sahara!"
StatusState partially recognized by 46 UN member states and South Ossetia
Capital
and largest city
El Aaiún (de jure)
27°9′N 13°12′W / 27.150°N 13.200°W / 27.150; -13.200
Capital-in-exile
Official languages
Spoken
languages
Religion
Islam (official)
Demonym(s)
GovernmentUnitary one-party semi-presidential republic
• President
Brahim Ghali
Bouchraya Hammoudi Bayoun
LegislatureNational Council
Formation
14 November 1975
• Republic declared
27 February 1976
• Sovereignty disputed with Morocco
Ongoing
Area
• Total
266,000 km2 (103,000 sq mi) (claimed)
90,000 km2 (35,000 sq mi) (controlled) (77th)
• Water (%)
Negligible
Population
• Estimate
c. 200,000
• Refugee camps
173,600 (2023 estimate)[8]
• Liberated Territories
40,000 (2010 estimate)[9][b]
CurrencySahrawi peseta (de jure) (EHP)
De facto
Time zoneUTC+1 (WAT)
Date formatdd/mm/yyyy (AD)
Drives onright
ISO 3166 codeEH
Internet TLD.eh (reserved)
Part of a series on the
Western Sahara conflict
Background
Regions
Politics
Clashes
Issues
Peace process

The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic,[e] also known as the Sahrawi Republic and Western Sahara, is a partially recognized state, located in the western Maghreb, which claims the non-self-governing territory of Western Sahara, but controls only the easternmost one-fifth of that territory. It is recognized by 46 UN member states and South Ossetia. Between 1884 and 1975, Western Sahara was known as Spanish Sahara, a Spanish colony (later an overseas province). The SADR is one of the two African states in which Spanish is a significant language, the other being Equatorial Guinea.

The SADR was proclaimed by the Polisario Front on 27 February 1976, in Bir Lehlou, Western Sahara. The SADR government calls the territories under its control the Liberated Territories or the Free Zone. Morocco controls and administers the rest of the disputed territory, and calls these lands its Southern Provinces. The claimed capital city of the SADR is El Aaiún (the capital of the territory of Western Sahara). Since the SADR does not control El Aaiún, it has established a temporary capital in Tifariti, although most of the day-to-day administration happens in Rabuni, one of the Sahrawi refugee camps located in Tindouf, Algeria.

The SADR maintains diplomatic relations with 46 United Nations states, and is a full member of the African Union. With a population of about half a million, it is the most sparsely populated in Africa, and the second-most sparsely populated in the world.[11]

  1. ^ SADR. "Constitution of the SADR" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 11 November 2007. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  2. ^ "الوفد الصحراوي سيحضر لقاء جنيف بإرادة صادقة للتقدم نحو الحل الذي يضمن حق الشعب الصحراوي في تقرير المصير والاستقلال". Sahara Press Service (in Arabic). 29 November 2018. Archived from the original on 25 November 2023.
  3. ^ János Besenyő; R. Joseph Huddleston; Yahia H. Zoubir (2022). Conflict and Peace in Western Sahara The Role of the UN's Peacekeeping Mission (MINURSO). Taylor & Francis. p. 51. ISBN 978-10-0080733-2.
  4. ^ Dawn Chatty (2010). Deterritorialized Youth Sahrawi and Afghan Refugees at the Margins of the Middle East. Berghahn Books. p. 114. ISBN 978-1-84545-653-5.
  5. ^ Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (2015). South-South Educational Migration, Humanitarianism and Development Views from the Caribbean, North Africa and the Middle East. Routledge. p. 48. ISBN 978-1-135-07667-2.
  6. ^ Martos, Isabel (2014). Linguistic Policy in the Camps of Sahrawi Refugees. ECAS 2013, 5th European Conference on African Studies. Universidad de Alcalá. Archived from the original on 22 May 2021. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  7. ^ "El Español en los Campamentos de Refugiados Saharauis (Tinduf, Algeria)" (PDF). Cvc.cervantes.es. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 December 2016. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  8. ^ Sahrawi Refugee Response Plan 2024–2025 (Report). United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. November 2023. p. 14.
  9. ^ "Vivir sin nubes" [Living without clouds]. El País (in Spanish). 18 December 2010. En los alrededores de Tifariti sobreviven unas 40.000 personas, una población dispersa y nómada [...] según cifras oficiales. [In the vicinity of Tifariti, about 40,000 people survive, a dispersed and nomadic population [...] according to official figures.]
  10. ^ "Los campamentos de refugiados saharauis" [The Sahrawi refugee camps] (in Spanish). Una mirada al Sáhara Occidental. 26 December 2019. Archived from the original on 7 December 2023. Retrieved 21 October 2023. La divisa local es el dinar argelino, aunque se puede pagar casi todo en euros. La moneda mínima para hacer compras en los campamentos es el billete de 10€. [The local currency is the Algerian dinar, although you can pay almost everything in euros. The minimum currency to make purchases in the camps is the €10 bill.]
  11. ^ "Western Sahara Population 2023 (Live)". Archived from the original on 8 March 2023. Retrieved 8 March 2023.


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