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New Roman',serif;" valign="top"><a
href="https://go.ind.media/e/546932/orgotten-colony-in-the-sahara-/sdhgn7/1195475823?h=fCe1aIX8QLdvFmYzo-A08tAPVqrqM_BSOhUtssaaePI"
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Forgotten Colony in the Sahara</b></a></td>
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valign="top"><b>By Paweł Wargan - November 18,
2022</b>
<div><br>
Since <a
href="www.unocha.org/middle-east-and-north-africa-romena/algeria"
moz-do-not-send="true">1975</a>, thousands
of Sahrawi people have lived in five refugee
camps in the Algerian Sahara. They named these
camps after <a
href="reliefweb.int/report/libya/humanitarian-implementation-plan-hip-north-africa-echowwdbud201501000-last-update"
moz-do-not-send="true">cities</a> in Western
Sahara: Ausserd, Boujdour, Dakhla, Laayoune,
and Smara. In a straight line, Smara the camp
is some 400 kilometers from Smara the city.
But a sand berm, <a
href="www.reuters.com/article/us-morocco-westernsahara/morocco-pm-says-western-sahara-wall-at-centre-of-dispute-completed-idUSKBN27X2MH"
moz-do-not-send="true">built</a> in the
1980s by Morocco, makes the distance
unassailable. At 2,700 kilometers, the <a
href="twitter.com/ProgIntl/status/1589224964330491905"
moz-do-not-send="true">berm</a> is the
second-longest military fortification in the
world, after the Great Wall of China.
Reinforced
with ditches and barbed wire fences, artillery
and tanks, guarded outposts, and <a
href="www.aljazeera.com/features/2015/6/5/western-saharas-struggle-for-freedom-cut-off-by-a-wall"
moz-do-not-send="true">millions</a> of land
mines, the sand berm <a
href="twitter.com/ProgIntl/status/1589224964330491905"
moz-do-not-send="true">partitions</a>
Western Sahara—separating 80 percent of
Western Sahara controlled by Morocco from the
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic—which is <a
href="www.un.org/dppa/decolonization/en/nsgt" moz-do-not-send="true">recognized</a>
by the United Nations as the last
“non-self-governing territory” in Africa. In
1991, MINURSO, the UN Mission for the
Referendum in Western Sahara, <a
href="peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/minurso"
moz-do-not-send="true">announced</a> a
plebiscite that would give the Sahrawi people
a choice: independence or integration with
Morocco. In April 1991, the Sahrawi people
packed their belongings in boxes, choosing the
former.<br>
<br>
Seeking access to Western Sahara’s rich
coastline, Spain first <a
href="progressive.international/wire/2022-04-27-the-history-of-western-sahara-is-a-history-of-betrayal/en"
moz-do-not-send="true">seized</a> the
territory after European colonizers <a
href="www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/11/15/berlin-1884-remembering-the-conference-that-divided-africa"
moz-do-not-send="true">partitioned</a>
Africa at the West African Conference of
Berlin that took place from November 1884 to
February 1885. By the 1970s, facing resistance
from the Sahrawi people and increasing
internal pressures, the regime of Francisco
Franco in Spain <a
href="mobile.twitter.com/ProgIntl/status/1589224943975165952"
moz-do-not-send="true">agreed</a> to hold a
referendum on independence, which <a
href="www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-feb-26-mn-12005-story.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">never took place</a>.
Spain eventually pulled out from Western
Sahara. Meanwhile, to the south and the north,
Mauritania and Morocco had set their sights on
Western Sahara’s resources. In November 1975,
despite a judgment from the International
Court of Justice <a
href="www.icj-cij.org/en/case/61"
moz-do-not-send="true">that</a> neither
Mauritania nor Morocco had territorial
sovereignty over the land, Morocco <a
href="www.vice.com/en/article/yvq3ey/cold-war-in-the-desert"
moz-do-not-send="true">sent</a> 25,000
troops and 350,000 settlers to Western Sahara.
On November 14, Spain signed the tripartite <a
href="treaties.un.org/doc/publication/unts/volume%20988/volume-988-i-14450-english.pdf"
moz-do-not-send="true">Madrid Accords</a>
with Morocco and Mauritania, effectively
ceding Western Sahara to its invaders.<br>
<br>
The Polisario Front, a national liberation
movement formed in <a
href="www.reuters.com/article/us-sahara-polisario-timeline-idUSL2163728820071221"
moz-do-not-send="true">1973</a> to oppose
Spanish colonialism, now fought on two fronts.
Supported by Algeria, it <a
href="www.seguridadinternacional.es/?q=en/content/proposal-peace-western-sahara-applications-kurdish-model-regional-autonomy"
moz-do-not-send="true">defeated</a> the
Mauritanians in 1978. But Morocco retained its
control over Western Sahara—with significant <a
href="www.seguridadinternacional.es/?q=en/content/proposal-peace-western-sahara-applications-kurdish-model-regional-autonomy"
moz-do-not-send="true">backing</a> from
Western powers, including the United States
and members of NATO. At the Museum of
Resistance in the camps, the Polisario <a
href="www.mashallahnews.com/western-sahara-in-beirut/"
moz-do-not-send="true">keeps</a> weapons of
war captured during its struggle—tanks,
airplanes, artillery, and
armored vehicles from Austria, Germany,
France, Spain, the U.S., Belgium, and
apartheid South Africa.<br>
<br>
Morocco controls 80 percent of Western Sahara.
In the other 20 percent, the Polisario Front
governs the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic,
a state battling for recognition. Armed
conflict continued until Morocco and the
Polisario agreed to a <a
href="minurso.unmissions.org/ceasefire-monitoring"
moz-do-not-send="true">ceasefire</a> in
September 1991 overseen by MINURSO. “I was
just coming back from Syria, a young graduate,
having lived my entire life within this
liberation process,” Oubi Bachir, a diplomat
for the Polisario Front, told me. “I
discovered not just hope, but jubilation.
Finally, we were going home.” The Sahrawi
people packed boxes to take their belongings
back to Western Sahara. But as the boxes
gathered dust, jubilation turned to
frustration. The independence referendum has <a
href="www.africanews.com/2022/03/19/polisario-front-rejects-new-spain-s-stance-on-western-sahara//"
moz-do-not-send="true">failed</a> to take
place—and the possibilities for armed struggle
only reemerged when Morocco <a
href="panafricanvisions.com/2022/01/morocco-drives-a-war-in-western-sahara-for-its-phosphates/"
moz-do-not-send="true">broke</a> the
ceasefire in 2020. The Sahrawi liberation
movement, Bachir said, was “built on the armed
struggle as the dominating pillar of action.
That was taken away with no practical process
in its place.”<br>
<br>
<b>Imperialism in Western Sahara</b><br>
<br>
Western Sahara is a rich land. It <a
href="peoplesdispatch.org/2022/01/20/morocco-drives-a-war-in-western-sahara-for-its-phosphates/"
moz-do-not-send="true">has</a> some 72
percent of the world’s phosphate deposits,
which are used to manufacture fertilizers. By
the end of November 2021, Morocco <a
href="www.moroccoworldnews.com/2021/12/345803/moroccos-ocp-generated-mad-57-6-billion-in-net-revenues"
moz-do-not-send="true">reported</a> revenues
of $6.45 billion from phosphates, an amount
that increases each year. Western Sahara’s
fishing grounds <a
href="wsrw.org/en/news/the-fishing-industry"
moz-do-not-send="true">accounted</a> for
77.65 percent of Moroccan catches in 2018,
representing the majority of its income from
fishing that year. The European Union, too,
operates a fleet in these waters. In 2018, a <a
href="curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document_print.jsf?doclang=FR&text=&pageIndex=0&part=1&mode=lst&docid=204281&occ=first&dir=&cid=670789"
moz-do-not-send="true">judgment</a> of the
Court of Justice of the EU struck down the
2000 Euro-Mediterranean Agreement between
Morocco and the EU as “incompatible with the
principles of self-determination.” But the EU
<a
href="wsrw.org/en/news/the-fishing-industry"
moz-do-not-send="true">continues</a> to act
in violation of the judgment, funding highly
destructive fishing practices in the occupied
territory. Scientists warn that overfishing in
Western Sahara is rapidly <a
href="www.nature.com/articles/496300a"
moz-do-not-send="true">destroying</a> a
critical biodiversity hotspot.<br>
<br>
Morocco and its international backers have
their sights on two other resources abundant
in the territory: wind and sunlight. In 2018,
using German technology, the UK firm Windhoist
<a href="wsrw.org/en/news/renewable-energy"
moz-do-not-send="true">built</a> the 200 MW
Aftissat wind farm in Western Sahara. Vigeo
Eiris, a UK-French company that has been
“investigating companies operating in occupied
Palestine,” <a
href="wsrw.org/en/archive/3765"
moz-do-not-send="true">certified</a>
Moroccan energy investments on Sahrawi land.
General Electric <a
href="www.ge.com/news/press-releases/ge-renewable-energy-and-nareva-to-build-200-mw-aftissat-onshore-wind-farm-extension-morocco"
moz-do-not-send="true">signed</a> a contract
to build a 200 MW wind farm in Western Sahara.
<a
href="vest-sahara.s3.amazonaws.com/wsrw/feature-images/File/405/616014d0c1f1d_Greenwashing-occupation_web.pdf"
moz-do-not-send="true">Greenwashing</a> its
occupation in Western Sahara, Morocco uses the
infrastructure in reporting toward its climate
targets. Western Sahara Resource Watch <a
href="wsrw.org/en/news/report-morocco-uses-green-energy-to-embellish-its-occupation"
moz-do-not-send="true">estimates</a> that
the wind power plants in the territory could
account for 47.2 percent of Morocco’s wind
capacity and up to 32.64 percent of its solar
capacity by 2030.<br>
<br>
<b>The People Bloom</b><br>
<br>
“We call this the desert within the desert,”
Mohamed El Mamun, a Polisario Front
representative, told me on a drive between two
camps. The sand is so salty, the water so
scarce, that few things can grow. Yet in the
five decades since the five camps have
existed, the Sahrawi people have made great
strides toward building a dignified society in
them. They eliminated illiteracy. They built
universal education and the infrastructure to
extract and distribute water to the people.
Mass movements ensure the participation of
women, workers, and the youth in the project
of liberation. Health care is free, and a
small experiment in aquaponic farming promises
to grow food in one of the most arid places on
Earth.<br>
<br>
The camps depend <a
href="reliefweb.int/report/algeria/collapse-western-sahara-ceasefire-threatens-prospect-peaceful-solution-45-year-long"
moz-do-not-send="true">almost entirely</a>
on foreign aid, a resource that is rapidly
depleting. As of November 10, 2022, the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’
Algeria mission, a key source of humanitarian
assistance to the Sahrawis, was only <a
href="reporting.unhcr.org/algeria-funding-2022"
moz-do-not-send="true">39 percent funded</a>.
The UN has <a
href="reliefweb.int/report/world/war-ukraine-rise-arms-spending-undermine-development-aid-world-s-poor"
moz-do-not-send="true">warned</a> that the
Russian-Ukrainian conflict risks further
eroding that support. Here, socialist
internationalism plays an important role. In
the Smara camp, Venezuela and Cuba <a
href="venezuelanalysis.com/news/6275"
moz-do-not-send="true">built</a> a school.
The Simón Bolívar School is staffed by Cuban
teachers. More than 100 Sahrawis have
graduated from the school since it opened in
2011. Some of the alumni went on to study in
Cuba, returning as doctors, engineers, and
teachers. Nearby, a man who calls himself
Castro established the Center for Education
and Integration, which prepares children with
severe disabilities to live a dignified life.
Above its entrance, a sign reads: “Neither
plants nor trees grow here, but people bloom.”<br>
<br>
<em><b>Paweł Wargan</b> is an organizer and
researcher based in Berlin and the
coordinator of the secretariat of the <a
href="progressive.international/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Progressive
International</a>.</em><br>
<br>
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