[13] The United Nations had long called for a plebiscite on the future status of the colony, but in November 1975 Spain signed an agreement under which it was split between Morocco and Mauritania with no prior referendum.

[25][26][27] The Moroccans showed reporters Soviet-made missiles with Algerian army markings at the site a few days after the battle.

[11] The Algerian newspaper El Moudjahid claimed 400 Moroccan deaths, and went on to say Algeria would have chosen more effective weapons and a more strategic location than the Western Sahara if the intent had been to attack Morocco.

[3] International Red Cross officials confirmed the number of Algerian prisoners when they visited them in their place of detention near Rabat.

[4] The day after the attack, on 28 January Algerian President Houari Boumediene sent messages to heads of state around the world.

To leaders of the non-aligned countries he said that Algeria was concerned only with the right to self-determination of their brothers and neighbors in Western Sahara, who were facing what amounted to genocide.

Algeria also presented their position to the United Nations and its Security Council, and held a series of meetings with Arab leaders.

On 12 February 1976 the Moroccan army occupied Al Mahbes, a community 50 kilometres (31 mi) from the Algerian border that commanded the route to Tindouf.

Polisario could not hope to defeat the Moroccan army in open battle, so adopted a guerilla policy of raids and withdrawals to create a zone of insecurity.

[32] Hassan II of Morocco immediately accused Algeria of involvement in the attack, saying the Algerians had used heavy weapons "in numbers conceived for annihilation."

[16] In Addis Ababa later that month, Algeria worked for recognition of the Polisario Front by the Organisation of African Unity.

[34] Spain officially withdrew from the territory on 27 February 1976, and that day Polisario formally proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).

[24] Ten years later, with a thawing of relations between Algeria and Morocco, on 25 May 1987 one hundred and fifty Moroccan prisoners of war were exchanged for 102 Algerian soldiers captured during the Battle of Amgala in 1976.

[36] In April 2013, specialists from the University of the Basque Country and the Aranzadi Science Society were contacted by Saharawi families of victims to investigate the discovery of human remains in the Fadret area near Amgala.

The team concluded in September 2013 that 8 Sahrawi civilians, including 2 children, had been arrested in February 1976 by a Moroccan military patrol and executed by gunfire, before being buried on the spot.

[38] However, the Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER), launched by the Moroccan authorities in 2004 to investigate enforced disappearances and other violations, had given no information on the fate of the eight people.