# Western Sahara > Disputed territory on Africa's Atlantic coast, Western Sahara has been under de facto Moroccan control since 1975 and is the core fault line dividing Morocco and Algeria. **Meta:** type: reference · date: 2026-07-03 · heads: · 3 takes · 2 lenses · 2 regions ## What it is Western Sahara is a non-self-governing territory of roughly 266,000 square kilometers on Africa's Atlantic coast, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, and Mauritania to the east and south. Morocco controls approximately 80% of the territory, including the Atlantic coast and its phosphate deposits, behind a 2,700-kilometer earthen berm. The Polisario Front, backed by Algeria, administers the eastern "Free Zone" from exile and represents a diaspora of roughly 173,000 Sahrawi refugees in camps near Tindouf, Algeria. The territory holds the world's largest known phosphate reserves at Bou Craa and productive Atlantic fisheries. The UN classifies Western Sahara as a non-self-governing territory whose final status remains unresolved. ## History Spain colonized the territory as Spanish Sahara from 1884. In late 1975, with Francisco Franco dying and Spain negotiating its exit, Morocco organized the Green March: 350,000 Moroccan civilians crossed the northern border on November 6, 1975. The November 1975 Madrid Accords divided Spanish Sahara between Morocco and Mauritania. The Polisario Front, founded in May 1973 to oppose Spanish colonial rule, pivoted to fighting Morocco and declared the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in February 1976. Mauritania signed a peace agreement with the Polisario in August 1979 and renounced its portion; Morocco immediately annexed that southern strip. Morocco began constructing the berm, a sand-and-stone wall, in the early 1980s to seal off Polisario incursions. Polisario guerrilla warfare continued until a UN-brokered ceasefire in September 1991, when Security Council Resolution 690 established MINURSO to monitor the ceasefire and organize a self-determination referendum. That referendum was never held: Morocco insisted Moroccan settlers be included on the voter rolls; the Polisario insisted on the 1974 Spanish census. In November 2020, Morocco militarily entered the Guerguerat buffer zone at the Mauritanian border; the Polisario declared the ceasefire void and resumed armed clashes. ## Current state As of mid-2026, MINURSO monitors the contested line but carries no human rights mandate, a gap the Polisario and international rights organizations consistently flag. UN Security Council Resolution 2797, adopted October 31, 2025, with a vote of 11-0 and three abstentions (China, Pakistan, and Russia; Algeria did not participate), renewed MINURSO's mandate through October 2026 and explicitly endorsed Morocco's 2007 autonomy plan as potentially the most feasible basis for resolution. That language marks a diplomatic tilt: earlier resolutions called both parties to negotiate without prejudging the outcome. Staffan de Mistura, appointed UN Personal Envoy in 2021, continues shuttle diplomacy, but no new formal negotiating round has been scheduled. The Polisario demands a referendum that includes independence as an option; Morocco considers its sovereignty over the territory non-negotiable. The US recognized Moroccan sovereignty in December 2020 under the Trump administration and has not reversed that recognition. Spain endorsed Morocco's autonomy plan in 2022; France followed in 2024. The US-led effort to convert the UN tilt into a Morocco-Algeria normalisation deal, covered in [After the UN tilt to Rabat, Washington pushes a Morocco-Algeria reconciliation](/en/n/morocco-algeria-us-reconciliation-push), has not advanced: Algeria has not formally engaged. ## Relationships Morocco and Algeria severed diplomatic relations in August 2021, with Western Sahara as the stated cause. Algeria arms and hosts the Polisario, funds the Tindouf refugee camps, and has recognized the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. The SADR holds full African Union membership, which complicated Morocco's 2017 return to the AU after a 33-year absence and continues to create institutional friction. The economic stakes are specific: Bou Craa's phosphate output gives Morocco leverage in global fertiliser supply chains, and Atlantic fishing rights around Western Saharan waters are a recurring point of contention in Morocco's agreements with the European Union, where the European Court of Justice has twice ruled those agreements invalid without Sahrawi consent. ## What to watch - Whether de Mistura can convene a fifth round of informal talks; the fourth round, in 2019, produced no substantive progress. - The October 2026 MINURSO mandate renewal: whether UNSC language moves further toward Morocco's position or returns to neutral framing. - Morocco-Algeria normalisation: Washington views it as the political unlock for a durable settlement, but Algiers has given no signal of formal engagement. - Escalation along the berm or at the Guerguerat crossing, where Polisario-Morocco friction has been most acute since 2020. ## Regional takes (batched by bias / lens) ### official record - **UN MINURSO (Official Mission Site)** (International, en) — Official homepage of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, established by SC Resolution 690 (1991): mandate, ceasefire monitoring role, mine action operations, and current mission leadership. Source: https://minurso.unmissions.org/ - **UN Security Council (Resolution 2797, SC/16208, October 2025)** (International, en) — Official UN press release on SC Resolution 2797 (31 Oct 2025): renews MINURSO through October 2026 and endorses Morocco's 2007 autonomy plan as potentially the most feasible basis for resolution; adopted 11-0 with three abstentions. Source: https://press.un.org/en/2025/sc16208.doc.htm ### human rights - **Human Rights Watch (March 2026)** (North Africa, en) — HRW report on Resolution 2797's implications: Morocco's autonomy plan excludes independence, contains no reparations provision, and omits a clear definition of the self-determination electorate; documents ongoing repression of Sahrawi activists inside Moroccan-controlled territory. Source: https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/25/un-western-sahara-peoples-self-determination-at-risk ## Across the graph - Related: [[morocco-algeria-us-reconciliation-push]] - Entities: Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, United Nations, Polisario Front --- Canonical: https://rbtfl.xyz/en/n/western-sahara-dossier