Western Sahara

Western Sahara borders the North Atlantic Ocean to the northwest, Morocco to the north-northeast, Algeria to the east-northeast, and Mauritania to the east and south. It has a land mass of 266,000km² and a coastline of 1,110km and a population of 652,000 people. No economic data is available.

Its currency is the Sahrawi Peseta.

Western Sahara has a small market-based economy whose main industries are fishing, phosphate mining, tourism, and pastoral nomadism, but the economy is based almost entirely on saltwater fishing and phosphate mining. The arid desert climate makes sedentary agriculture difficult, and Western Sahara imports much of its food. The region lacks sufficient rainfall and freshwater resources for large-scale agriculture. There is speculation that there may be offshore oil and natural gas fields, but it is unclear whether these resources can ever be legally or profitably exploited.

Morocco has claimed authority over Western Sahara since 1975, but the United Nations considers it a “non-self-governing territory.” Morocco controls the most populous area along the Atlantic coastline, more than three-quarters of the territory; this area, which the Moroccan government calls the “Southern Provinces,” is represented in that country’s parliament. The Polisario Front controls land in Western Sahara’s eastern and southern reaches. Rabat regularly offers autonomy; the Polisario demands an independence referendum. A long-promised referendum on Western Sahara’s status has never been held. A 1991 UN–brokered cease-fire deteriorated in 2020. Civil liberties are severely restricted in Moroccan-controlled territory, especially relating to independence activism; civil liberties are similarly curtailed in Polisario-controlled territory.

Formerly the colony Spanish Sahara, it is a disputed territory in the Maghreb region claimed by both Morocco and the Sahrawi/Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). Morocco controls approximately 80% of the territory and administers it officially as the “Southern Provinces” consisting of the Rio de Oro and Saguia el-Hamra regions. The SADR controls the remaining 20% and a UN-monitored ceasefire has been in effect since 1991.




Sources: Who Owns Whom sector reports, CIA Factbook, African Development Bank, World Bank, Trading Economics, African Statistical Yearbook and IMF. ?>