A man in Moroccan-controlled Laayoune holds flags in a commemorative parade.
Abdel Majid BZIOUAT/AFP via Getty Images
Western Sahara is a disputed territory the size of Colorado in West Africa.
Though Morocco controls most of the territory, the UN considers its final status unresolved.
While the territory is home to cities, mosques, and culture, it's also defined by conflict.
With close to 200 countries between them, all seven continents are home to territorial disputes.
But in Africa, a territory the size of Colorado is designated by the United Nations as a non-self-governing territory, making it the largest disputed territory in the world.
Western Sahara borders Algeria, Mauritania, and Morocco, with the latter controlling about 80% of the territory. The eastern area is controlled by the Polisario Front, a nationalist military group made up of the Sahrawi ethnic group, who are native to the region.
The territory holds political significance for its phosphate rock reserves, offshore fishing, and location on the Atlantic coast. While Morocco claims Western Sahara as its own, the Polisario Front proclaims the territory to belong to the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Many Sahrawi people reside in refugee camps on the Algerian border.
Formerly controlled by Spain, the territory has never seen a referendum on independence for the native Sahrawis. As a result, many activists dub the territory "Africa's last colony."
See life in Western Sahara in photos.
Spain withdrew from Western Sahara in 1975.Moroccans walking in the Green March of 1975.
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Spain withdrew its rule in Western Sahara amid increasing resistance from the Polisario independence movement, and Morocco soon ushered in 350,000 Moroccans in a demonstration known as the Green March. Neighboring Mauritania also laid claim to part of the territory, but withdrew by the end of the decade due to military force from the Polisario Front.
After conflict ensued between Moroccan forces and Polisario fighters, a ceasefire was agreed upon in the 1990s under the auspices of the UN. Under the agreement, a referendum on independence was envisioned for the Sahrawi people, but the vote never took place.
The territory is divided diagonally by a Moroccan-constructed Berm, lined with land mines.
Fighting has resumed in recent years, though a Moroccan proposal for Western Saharan autonomy under Moroccan authority was addressed by the UN Security Council in 2025. It said Morocco's proposal should be taken as a basis for discussions toward "a final and mutually acceptable political solution that provides for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara."
Polisario leaders oppose the plan and instead advocate a referendum on independence.
Today, Moroccan-controlled Laayoune is the territory's largest city.A man rides past a roundabout in Laayoune.
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Located just 40 miles south of the Moroccan border, the city of Laayoune has a population of over 250,000, nearly half of Western Sahara's total population.
The city was founded during Spanish rule and served as the former administrative capital of the colony. Like most of the region, it has an arid desert climate.
Following the Green March, Morocco offered tax breaks to thousands of Moroccans as an incentive to move to the newly controlled territory, The Guardian reported. By 2015, it was believed that two-thirds of the Western Saharan population consisted of Moroccan settlers and their descendants.
Laayoune remains under constant supervision of UN peacekeeping forces, The Guardian reported.
A mix of Moroccan and Sahrawi cultures defines the city.People shop for fruits and vegetables at a market in Laayoune.
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Kourbine, or corvina, is a locally caught fish that is a staple of the area. A Sahrawi tea known as atay is a traditional drink that symbolizes respect.
Sahrawi Hassani music is popular in Laayoune, mixing elements from Arabic music with African rhythms, per The Guardian.
Western Sahara is almost entirely Muslim.The Moulay Abd el Aziz Mosque in Laayoune.
Henryk Sadura/Shutterstock
According to the US Department of State, the vast majority of people living in Western Sahara are Sunni Muslims, aside from Moroccan Christians and United Nations workers.
Phosphate mining is the region's biggest economic boon.The Bou Craa Phosphate Mine is visible from space.
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A report by Western Sahara Resource Watch estimated that phosphate exports from the region, controlled by Morocco, netted between $328 million and $656 million in 2022.
Morocco is the sole beneficiary of phosphate mining in Western Sahara. Critics say the mining violates international law, citing a UN legal counsel's 2002 opinion that the extraction of mineral resources would be illegal if they were carried out "without respect to the interests and wishes of the people of Western Sahara."
The Bou Craa Phosphate Mine, located southeast of Laayoune, is visible from space and features the world's longest conveyor belt, which stretches 60 miles long, according to NASA.
Fishing is another substantial earner.Fishermen put fresh fish on ice in Port El-Marsa, Laayoune.
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While fishing off the Western Sahara coastline is lucrative, the practice has been marked by controversy in recent years. For more than 15 years, a Moroccan fishing agreement with the European Union allowed European member states to participate in offshore fishing.
The agreement expired in 2023. In 2024, the EU's top court ruled that the trade deals were carried out and concluded without the consent of the Western Saharan people, Reuters reported.
Dakhla, a peninsular fishing hub, is the second largest city in the territory.Dakhla, Western Sahara.
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The Moroccan-controlled city of Dakhla sits on a peninsula in the southern part of the territory and is home to over 100,000 residents.
Morocco launched substantial infrastructure projects to develop the city's port and to construct the Tiznit-Dakhla expressway, a road leading to Tiznit in Morocco, per SpecialEurasia.
Pro-Sahrawi dissent in Moroccan-controlled territory is repressed, international organizations say.A Sahrawi artisan creates a dar'a, a traditional attire worn by the men of the Moroccan Sahara, in Laayoune.
Abdel Majid BZIOUAT/AFP via Getty Images
Amnesty International reported that authorities in the Moroccan-controlled parts of Western Sahara have repressed dissent and peaceful assembly of Sahrawi people, such as an incident in January 2024 where police "subjected protesters to beatings," the organization said.
In October 2010, Sahrawi demonstrators erected a camp near Laayoune in protest of alleged human rights abuses. Violence ensued after Moroccan forces clashed with protesters, resulting in 13 deaths, Amnesty International reported, though Moroccan officials and the Polisario Front each claim higher death counts.
Morocco considers Western Sahara its "southern provinces."A portrait of Morocco's King Mohammed VI in Laayoune.
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Two of Morocco's 12 administrative regions, Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra and Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab, sit inside Western Sahara. Like Morocco's other administrative regions, they feature governors and elected regional councils.
The Moroccan-controlled territory also has elected officials on a local level. Moulay Hamdi Ould Errachid has served as mayor of Laayoune since 2006, according to the Maghreb Arabe Press, Morocco's state-run news agency.
The Moroccan government maintains a firm stance on the territory.Morocco's King Mohammed VI is greeted in Smara in 2001.
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In 2021, Morocco's King Mohammed VI said, "Today as in the past, Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara will never be up for negotiation," Al Jazeera reported.
Recently, Morocco has remained steadfast in its proposal to the UN, which would grant autonomy to Western Sahara under Moroccan rule. King Mohammed VI has appealed to Polisario forces to show support for the proposal, and has pledged Morocco's commitment to "finding a solution where there are no winners or losers — a solution that preserves the dignity of all parties," per Hespress, a Moroccan media outlet.
The United States and other nations have shown support for Morocco's sovereignty claims and autonomy plan.People wave Moroccan flags during commemorations of the Green March of 1975, in Laayoune.
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In 2020, the United States recognized Morocco's sovereignty over Western Sahara in exchange for Morocco normalizing relations with Israel.
In recent years, a growing number of nations have supported Morocco's autonomy plan. Morocco World News cites 120 countries that back the proposal, and countries across the world have increasingly opened consulates in Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara.
Daily life looks very different for Sahrawi refugees.A man works on footwear in the Boujdour Camp, Tindouf, Algeria.
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Many Sahrawi people were displaced after the 1975 Green March, resulting in a refugee crisis. Refugees fled to the east, and now most of the 174,000 reside in camps in Tindouf, Algeria, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Inhabitants of the camps face difficult conditions in the desert heat and are reliant on international humanitarian aid like the UN's World Food Programme.
Neighboring Algeria provides a home for refugees and support for the Polisario Front.The Smara Refugee Camp in Tindouf province, Algeria.
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The five refugee camps in Tindouf Province are mostly named after the cities their inhabitants fled from. The camps sit near the Algeria-Western Sahara border and are managed by the Polisario Front.
Algeria has shown sympathy for the Sahrawi cause, backing the Polisario Front and opposing Moroccan control of Western Sahara. The former French colony allows a degree of autonomy for Sahrawi people taking refuge in the country.
Fighting has resumed in the eastern part of the territory.A member of the Polisario Front stands guard in Bir-Lahlou, near Algeria.
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Military skirmishes between Moroccan forces and the Polisario Front have been ongoing since 2020, ending a ceasefire between the two parties that had held for nearly 30 years.
The fighting resumed after protesters blocked an important road in the territory, leading Moroccan forces to launch an operation to clear the barricade. The Polisario Front then declared the ceasefire to be over.
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic was proclaimed by the Polisario Front in 1976.Sahrawi demonstrators march for independence in the Polisario-controlled portion of Western Sahara.
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The Polisario Front claims the territory belongs to the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). Polisario officials affirm Laayoune is its official capital, but governance is carried out in other controlled cities and outposts, as well as in the refugee camps in Tindouf Province, Algeria.
The SADR is only recognized by 47 countries, a number dwindling amid the growing support for Morocco's autonomy proposal, according to the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.
Activists around the world have shown solidarity with the Sahrawi people.Competitors run during the 16th Sahara Marathon on February 23, 2016.
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In Spain and elsewhere, advocates for Sahrawi independence attempt to make their voices heard through protests and organizing efforts.
The Sahara Marathon invites runners from around the world to trek across a portion of the arid desert near the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria. A portion of the proceeds goes towards aid and solidarity projects.
The organization describes it as "a race to prevent the Saharawi people from being forgotten."