They were related to the Gdeim Izik protest camp in Western Sahara established the previous fall, which had resulted in violence between Sahrawi activists and Moroccan security forces and supporters.

[4] According to Mayor Hamid Shabar, "Separatist elements tried to take advantage of a quarrel that occurred among some youths late last Friday night/early Saturday morning in order to disrupt the peaceful atmosphere that this area enjoys."

[10] Later in the month, peaceful protests in Laayoune became tri-weekly events, taking place on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, accompanying an "indefinite" sit-in held by unemployed university graduates outside of the Moroccan Ministry of Labour building in the city that started 20 April, according to several Sahrawi interest groups who spoke to media in mid-May.

[11] A sit-in at the family home of a Sahrawi boy allegedly killed by Moroccan police was dispersed on 19 May, with 30 protesters left injured by security officers, pro-Sahrawi media reported.

A handful of activists in Smara also started a sit-in and hunger strike to protest the suspension of their wages for visiting Polisario-administered refugee camps in the Algerian Sahara.

[13] According to afrol News, the initial protest in Dakhla appeared to be an isolated reaction to the alleged violence of the night before,[4] though more organized demonstrations had apparently spread to El Aaiun and possibly throughout the territory by March and April.

[10][11] While Foreign Policy reported in April that the Arab Spring seemed to have not had much effect in Western Sahara, with the international community not reacting strongly to the 2010 Sahrawi protests and the Moroccan security clampdown in early 2011,[2] Polisario Front official and president of the partially recognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Mohamed Abdelaziz said in early April, "Like our brothers and sisters in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Bahrain, the Saharawi people just want a vote to freely decide their own future.