Western Sahara: The Disputed Territory of Northwest Africa

Geography and Landscape

Western Sahara covers about 266,000 square kilometers of low, flat desert — one of the most arid and thinly inhabited landscapes on Earth. The terrain consists mainly of rocky hamada plateaus, gravel plains and shifting sand sheets, rising gently inland toward small highlands near the Mauritanian and Algerian borders. There are no permanent rivers; ephemeral wadis such as the Saguia el-Hamra in the north flow only after rare rains. The climate is hot desert throughout: rainfall averages under 50 millimeters per year in most areas, while the cool Canary Current moderates temperatures along the coast and produces frequent fog and heavy dew, an important moisture source for plants and wildlife.

The Atlantic coastline runs for roughly 1,100 kilometers and is generally low and sandy, with occasional cliffs and few natural harbors. The waters offshore are among the richest fishing grounds in the world, drawing commercial fleets for sardines, octopus and other species. The Dakhla peninsula in the south shelters a large lagoon known internationally for kitesurfing and birdlife, and tourism there has grown steadily. Inland, the landscape supports nomadic herding of camels and goats where sparse pasture allows.

Cities and People

Most of the population lives in a handful of coastal and near-coastal towns. Laayoune (El Aaiún), founded during the Spanish period on the Saguia el-Hamra wadi, is by far the largest city and the administrative center of the Moroccan-controlled zone, home to well over half the territory's residents. Dakhla, on its Atlantic peninsula, is the main center of the south, with a port, an airport and a growing tourism economy. Smaller towns include Smara, an inland caravan town with religious significance, and Boujdour on the coast. East of the berm, the Polisario-administered zone is almost empty desert; many Sahrawis live in long-established refugee camps around Tindouf in western Algeria.

History and the Sovereignty Dispute

Berber and later Arab nomads have crossed this desert for millennia, linking Morocco and the Mediterranean world with the Sahel through caravan trade. Spain claimed the coast in 1884 during the Scramble for Africa and later merged its holdings into the province of Spanish Sahara. As decolonization pressure mounted, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion in October 1975 finding that pre-colonial ties between the territory's tribes and Morocco and Mauritania did not amount to sovereignty, and affirming the Sahrawi right to self-determination.

Within weeks, Morocco launched the Green March, sending some 350,000 civilians across the border, and Spain agreed to transfer administration to Morocco and Mauritania. The Polisario Front, formed in 1973 to fight Spanish rule, proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in 1976 and fought a guerrilla war against both administering states. Mauritania withdrew in 1979, after which Morocco extended control over most of the territory and built a 2,700-kilometer defensive sand berm dividing it. A UN-brokered ceasefire took effect in 1991 with the promise of a referendum on independence or integration — a vote that was never held, stalled by disputes over voter eligibility. The ceasefire largely held until late 2020, when low-level hostilities resumed.

In 2007 Morocco submitted an autonomy plan to the United Nations, proposing broad self-government for the territory — its own legislative, executive and judicial bodies — under Moroccan sovereignty. Over the following years this initiative gathered wide international support: the United States recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in 2020, Spain endorsed the autonomy plan in 2022 as "the most serious, realistic and credible basis" for a solution, and France did the same in 2024, describing the territory's future as lying within Moroccan sovereignty. Dozens of African and Arab states have opened consulates in Laayoune and Dakhla, and in October 2025 the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2797 identifying autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty as the basis for negotiations. The territory nevertheless remains on the UN list of non-self-governing territories. The Polisario Front, supported principally by Algeria, continues to insist on a referendum that includes independence as an option, and the African Union still seats the SADR as a member. UN-led talks aim to reach a mutually acceptable, negotiated settlement.

Western Sahara on the Map

How Western Sahara is drawn varies from map to map, and the cartography itself tells the story of shifting diplomacy. Many atlases still separate the territory from Morocco with a dashed or dotted boundary, the conventional symbol for a disputed border. Maps published in Morocco — and, since 2020, official United States government maps — show it as an integral part of the kingdom's southern provinces, a depiction increasingly common as more countries endorse the autonomy plan, while the African Union and some publishers continue to mark it as a distinct territory. When reading any map of North Africa, the berm line, the Moroccan-administered west and the Polisario-controlled east are useful features for understanding the situation on the ground. The territory's neighbors — Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania — are each deeply involved in the dispute's past and future.