MER Article

How the Fishing Industry Strengthened Morocco’s Occupation of Western Sahara

The United Nations considers Western Sahara to be the last African colony. Until 1975 it was a non-self-governing territory legally recognized as being administered by the European colonial power of Spain. Instead of achieving independence when Spain withdrew, Western Sahara and its offshore waters

Victoria Veguilla • 10 min read

MER Article

An Invisible War in Western Sahara

War has broken out in Western Sahara and few have heard the news. At a crossroads between sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa, the Saharan desert has long been misconstrued in colonial discourses as a largely unpeopled geography deemed culturally marginal and largely assimilable to Maghrebi post-col

Vivian Solana • 11 min read

MER Article

Maghreb From the Margins

This issue of Middle East Report on “Maghreb From the Margins” addresses the evolving challenges that the peripheries are posing to power structures in Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia and the Western Sahara.

The Editors of Issue #298 • 6 min read

Current Analysis

Sahrawi Self-Determination, Trump’s Tweet and the Politics of Recognition in Western Sahara

The Sahrawi people have been struggling for self-determination in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara since 1975. Despite years of nonviolent resistance, there has been no significant change in the stalled process of decolonization. Until now. The sudden end to the long-running ceasefire and Trump's tw

Mark Drury • 7 min read

Current Analysis

Business as Usual in Western Sahara?

The end of 2018 witnessed potentially promising peace talks in Geneva between the Polisario Front liberation movement of Western Sahara and the Kingdom of Morocco in an effort to kickstart the stalled peace process for the nearly 45-year conflict over this North African territory. Nevertheless, the

Alice Wilson, Jacob Mundy • 12 min read

MER Article

North Africa's Invisible Refugees

It is December 2014, and on a chilly desert night in a refugee camp, a family sits in a circle inside their tent. Each family member wraps as much of his or her person as possible in a shared blanket. The mother, Almuadala, is making tea on a charcoal furnace.

(Author not identified) • 9 min read

MER Article

Western Sahara's 48 Hours of Rage

The first videos posted to YouTube showed a sea of makeshift tents at a desert locale called Gdim Izik, surrounded by scores of men in full riot gear silhouetted in the early morning light. Then came footage of chaos and screams of panic: cars honking, tents on fire, people running,

Jacob Mundy • 10 min read

Current Analysis

Western Sahara Poser for UN

Morocco serves as the backdrop for such Hollywood blockbusters as Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and Body of Lies. The country’s breathtaking landscapes and gritty urban neighbourhoods are the perfect setting for Hollywood’s imagination. Unbeknown to most filmgoers, however, is that Morocco is embroile

Jacob Mundy • 3 min read

Current Analysis

Western Sahara Between Autonomy and Intifada

In late February 2007, Western Saharan nationalists celebrated the thirty-first anniversary of their government, the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic. The official ceremonies did not take place in Laayoune, the declared capital of Western Sahara, but in the small outpost of Tifariti near the Algeria

Jacob Mundy • 12 min read

Current Analysis

Stubborn Stalemate in Western Sahara

On June 11, 2004, the United Nations announced that former Secretary of State James Baker had resigned his position as the secretary-general's personal envoy to the Western Sahara. Despite his personal prestige and the explicit backing of the US government, Baker failed to bring the Moroccan government around

Jacob Mundy • 7 min read

Current Analysis

Middle East Reform: Right Idea, Wrong Plan

Democratic reforms in the Middle East and North Africa are both warranted and wanted—not only among the leaders who gathered earlier this month on Sea Island for the G8 Summit but also by the majority of the region’s citizens. While there is little agreement on what form change should take, the mos

Maren Milligan, Jillian Schwedler • 3 min read

Current Analysis

Behind the Baker Plan for Western Sahara

On July 31, 2003, the UN Security Council voted to "support strongly" former Secretary of State James Baker's proposals for resolving the Western Sahara dispute, the last Africa file remaining open at the UN Decolonization Committee. Baker has been the personal envoy of UN Secretary-General Kofi Ann

Toby Shelley • 9 min read