Sahrawi nationalism

Despite considering the entire territory of current-day Western Sahara as its possession, beyond a handful of coastal settlements, Spain did not have effective control over the desert hinterland due to its harsh climatic conditions and the presence of small, nomadic groups, among whom intertribal conflicts were frequent.

[1] In 1957, Sahrawis began to enroll in the Moroccan Army of Liberation and launched attacks against French positions in southwestern Algeria and the extreme north of Mauritania, capitalizing on Western Sahara’s strategic location.

[1] King Hassan II of Morocco rallied political support and announced that his country would oppose independence as an option in the Western Sahara referendum.

They reported that "the population, or at least almost all those persons encountered on the mission, was categorically for independence" and that the Polisario Front was widely seen as a dominant, legitimate political force in the territory.

According to Human Rights Watch, as of 2023, “draconian laws [are] used by prosecutors [of the Moroccan government] to punish even peaceful advocacy for self-determination.”[6] This Western Sahara article is a stub.