Southern Provinces

The term "Southern Provinces" is frequently used on Moroccan state television (e.g. weather forecasts, news maps, and official statements).

This agreement led to Morocco assuming control over Saguia el-Hamra, while Mauritania took charge of Río de Oro, renaming it as Tiris al-Gharbiyya.

A locally based Sahrawi national liberation movement, known as the Polisario Front, initiated a guerrilla war on February 27, 1976, with significant financial and logistical support from Algeria and Libya.

After years of conflict in Western Sahara, Mauritania signed a peace agreement with the Polisario Front in 1979, formally renouncing its claim to the southern part of the territory.

This area is separated from the eastern third controlled by the Polisario Front, referred to by them as the Free Zone, by the Moroccan Western Sahara Wall or "the Berm".

[citation needed] The Moroccan government exercises control over approximately two-thirds of Western Sahara (the portion west of the Berm), while the remaining part constitutes the Polisario Front-controlled Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

As of 2022, the Southern Provinces are organized into three regions: Guelmim-Oued Noun in the north, Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra in the center, and Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab in the south.