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Western Sahara dispute

Last reviewed: 19-03-2008

Africa's longest-running territorial dispute


The Sahrawi refugees from Western Sahara rarely make it into the news, but for the past 30 years tens of thousands of them have been living in remote desert camps in Algeria, most of them totally dependent on humanitarian aid.

  • 165,000 refugees in Algeria
  • 40 percent of children malnourished
  • No political solution in sight

    The refugees now live in camps about 180 km (110 miles) from the southwestern Algerian city of Tindouf.

    Most left Western Sahara, a Moroccan-controlled territory just across the border from Algeria, in 1975 at the start of a lengthy war of independence between the indigenous Sahrawi group Polisario Front and Moroccan forces.

    Mauritania was also involved at the start but withdrew in 1979. Although Morocco and Polisario signed a ceasefire in 1991, the status of the territory has not yet been resolved. Until that happens, the refugees cannot return home.

    The World Food Programme says the camps experience regular food shortages, and malnutrition rates are high.

    KEY FACTS


    Size of Western Sahara 266,000 sq km (103,000 sq miles)
    Population 273,000 (Source: CIA World Factbook)

    Sahrawi refugees in Algeria:
    Number of refugees 165,000 (UNHCR, 2006)
    Percentage women and children 80 (U.N. Development Fund for Women-UNIFEM)
    Number of beneficiaries of WFP food aid in 2007 90,000 (WFP, 2007)
    Chronic child malnutrition rates 38.9 percent (WFP/U.N. Children's Fund-UNICEF, 2005)

    Rates of anaemia:
  • 68.5 percent children
  • 66.4 percent women of childbearing age
  • 76.5 percent pregnant women (WFP/UNICEF 2005)

    Main agencies working with the refugees: WFP, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), U.N. Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINUSRO), Oxfam, International Spanish Cooperation, Spanish Red Cross, Algerian Red Crescent, TRIANGLE, Sahrawi Women’s Union (UNMS)



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