Western Sahara War

For the ongoing hostilities that started with the breakdown of the 1991 ceasefire in 2020, see Second Western Sahara War.
Western Sahara War
Part of the Arab Cold War and Western Sahara conflict

Map of the Western Sahara; the red line is the military berm built by Morocco
Date30 October 1975 – 6 September 1991
(15 years, 10 months and 1 week)
Location
Western Sahara
Result

Inconclusive

  • Spanish complete withdrawal under the Madrid Accords (1976)
  • Mauritanian retreat and withdrawal of territorial claims and peace agreement with the Polisario Front. Moroccans retreat from Sahrawi free zone (1979)
  • Military stalemate[6][7][8]
  • Ceasefire agreed on between the Polisario Front and Morocco (1991)
Territorial
changes		 Morocco controls approximately 70% of the territory,[9] the Polisario Front controls 30%
Belligerents
 Morocco
 Mauritania (1975–1979)
Supported by:
 United States
 France (1977–1978, aid from 1978)
 Saudi Arabia[1][2][3]
  Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
Supported by:
 Algeria (1976,[4] aid from 1976)
 Libya (1976–1984)[5]
Commanders and leaders
Morocco Hassan II
(Supreme Commander and Chief-of-Staff)
Morocco Ahmed Dlimi
Morocco Abdelaziz Bennani
Morocco Mohamed Abrouk
Morocco Housni Benslimane
Morocco Hammou Arzaz
Mauritania Mokhtar Ould Daddah
Mauritania Mustafa Ould Salek
Mauritania Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah
Mauritania Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya
Mauritania Mohamed Ould Bah Ould Abdelkader
France Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
(President and Commander-in-Chief)
France Michel Claude Forget		 Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Mohamed Abdelaziz
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed †
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Brahim Ghali
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Lahbib Ayoub
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Mohamed Lamine Uld Bujari
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Mohamed Ali El Admi
Algeria Houari Boumediene
Algeria Lounes Arib
Strength
Morocco 30,000 (1976)[10]
60,000 (1980)[11]
150,000 (1988)[12]
120,000 (1991)[13]
Mauritania 3,000[14]–5,000[10] (1976)
12,000 (1977)[14]
18,000 (1978)[15]		 5,000 (1976)[16]
15,000 (1980)[11]
8,000 (1988)[12]
Casualties and losses
Morocco Unknown; 2,155[17]–2,300 captured[18]
Mauritania 2,000 soldiers killed[19]		 Unknown

Civilian Casualties:

More than 3,000 Sahrawis killed (Eckhardt,1985)[20]

3 West German pilots killed[21]

853+ (Project Disappeared)[22] – 1,500 (International Federation of Human Rights)[23] Sahrawis missing

40,000 (1976)[24] – 80,000 (1977)[25] Sahrawis displaced

Estimated death toll: 10,000–20,000[26]

The Western Sahara War (Arabic: حرب الصحراء الغربية, French: Guerre du Sahara occidental, Spanish: Guerra del Sáhara Occidental) was an armed struggle between the Sahrawi indigenous Polisario Front and Morocco from 1975 to 1991 (and Mauritania from 1975 to 1979), being the most significant phase of the Western Sahara conflict. The conflict erupted after the withdrawal of Spain from the Spanish Sahara in accordance with the Madrid Accords (signed under the pressure of the Green March), by which it transferred administrative control of the territory to Morocco and Mauritania, but not sovereignty. In late 1975, the Moroccan government organized the Green March of some 350,000 Moroccan citizens, escorted by around 20,000 troops, who entered Western Sahara, trying to establish a Moroccan presence.[27] While at first met with just minor resistance by the Polisario Front, Morocco later engaged a long period of guerrilla warfare with the Sahrawi nationalists. During the late 1970s, the Polisario Front, desiring to establish an independent state in the territory, attempted to fight both Mauritania and Morocco. In 1979, Mauritania withdrew from the conflict after signing a peace treaty with the Polisario Front.[28] The war continued in low intensity throughout the 1980s, though Morocco made several attempts to take the upper hand in 1989–1991. A cease-fire agreement was finally reached between the Polisario Front and Morocco in September 1991. Some sources put the final death toll between 10,000 and 20,000 people.[26]

The conflict has since shifted from military to civilian resistance. A peace process, attempting to resolve the conflict has not yet produced any permanent solution to Sahrawi refugees and territorial agreement between Morocco and the Sahrawi Republic. Today most of the territory of Western Sahara is under Moroccan occupation, while the inland parts are governed by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, managed by the Polisario Front.[29]

  1. ^ David Dean (1 April 2002), The Air Force role in low-intensity conflict, DIANE Publishing, p. 74, ISBN 9781428928275
  2. ^ Stephen Zunes ‏،Jacob Mundy (2010), Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution, Syracuse University Press, p. 44, ISBN 9780815652588
  3. ^ "Gulf Arabs back Morocco in Western Sahara rift with U.N." Reuters. 21 April 2016. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  4. ^ "Argelia acusa la derrota de Angola". ABC (in Spanish): 41. 1976-02-07. Retrieved 2012-07-24.
  5. ^ Cooper & Grandolini (2018), p. 52.
  6. ^ Anouar Boukhars; Jacques Roussellier (18 December 2013). Perspectives on Western Sahara: Myths, Nationalisms, and Geopolitics. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-4422-2686-9.
  7. ^ Véronique Dudouet (15 September 2014). Civil Resistance and Conflict Transformation: Transitions from armed to nonviolent struggle. Routledge. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-317-69778-7.
  8. ^ Ho-Won Jeong (4 December 2009). Conflict Management and Resolution: An Introduction. Routledge. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-135-26511-3.
  9. ^ Kingsbury, D. (Ed.). (2016). Western Sahara: International Law, Justice and Natural Resources (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315660967
  10. ^ a b Paul, Jim; Paul, Susanne; Salek, Mohamed Salem Ould; Ali, Hadssan; Hultman, Tami (1976). "With the Polisario Front of Sahara". MERIP Reports (53). MERIP reports, JSTOR: 16–21. doi:10.2307/3011206. JSTOR 3011206.
  11. ^ a b "Multinational Monitor, November 1980". multinationalmonitor.org.
  12. ^ a b Lewis, Paul (1988-08-31). "Sahara foes move to end their war". NY Times. Retrieved 2010-08-13.
  13. ^ "Keeping it secret – the United Nations operation in Western Sahara". Human Rights Watch. October 1995. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  14. ^ a b "Marruecos incrementa su presencia en Mauritania" (in Spanish). El País. 1977-07-21. Retrieved 2010-11-09.
  15. ^ Jose Ramón Diego Aguirre, Guerra en el Sáhara, Istmo, Colección Fundamentos, Vol. 124, 1991, Page 193
  16. ^ "North Africa: Shadow war in the Sahara". Time. 1977-01-03. Archived from the original on December 15, 2008. Retrieved 2010-08-13.
  17. ^ "Western Sahara, the facts". New Internationalist Issue 297. 1997-12-05. Retrieved 2010-10-01.
  18. ^ "El misterio de la guerra del Sáhara" (in Spanish). El País. September 10, 2006. Retrieved August 6, 2010.
  19. ^ J. David Singer, & Melvin Small (1982). Resort to Arms: International and Civil Wars, 1816–1980. Beverly Hills: Sage publications inc. ISBN 978-0-8039-1777-4.
  20. ^ Leger Sivard, Ruth (1987). World Military and Social Expenditures 12th ed. (1987–88). Washington D.C.: World priorities. ISBN 978-0-918281-05-0. War statistics table by William G. Eckhardt.
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference Polar3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ "Project Disappeared: Western Sahara". www.desaparecidos.org.
  23. ^ Solá-Martín, Andreu (2007). The United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara. Lewinston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press. p. 102.
  24. ^ Asistencia en favor de las víctimas saharauis. Revista Internacional de la Cruz Roja, 1, pp 83–83 (1976) (in Spanish)
  25. ^ "Open Society Foundations" (PDF). Open Society Foundations. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
  26. ^ a b EKSKLUZIVNO ZA LUPIGU: Podupiremo mirno rješenje, ali zadržavamo mogućnost da i silom oslobodimo našu zemlju Lupiga.com, 2 March 2013 (in Croatian)
  27. ^ Cite error: The named reference spectrezine was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  28. ^ "Retrait de la Mauritanie du Sahara occidental | Evenements | Perspective Monde". perspective.usherbrooke.ca. Retrieved 2023-11-15.
  29. ^ "Western Sahara profile". BBC News. 2011-07-11. Retrieved 2023-11-15.