A former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1975. Since then it has been the subject of a long-running territorial dispute between Morocco and its indigenous Saharawi people, led by the Polisario Front.
A 16-year-long insurgency ended with a UN-brokered truce in 1991 and the promise of a referendum on independence which has yet to take place.
A buffer strip, "Moroccan Wall" or "berm" with landmines and fortifications, stretches the length of the disputed territory and separates the Moroccan-controlled and administered western portion, which Morocco calls its "Southern Provinces" or "Moroccan Sahara," from the eastern area controlled by the Polisario Front, called the "Free Zone."
The Sahrawi (Saharan) Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), declared by the Polisario Front in 1976, is recognized by 84 governments and became a full member of the African Union in 1984, but not the UN.
Moroccan control over the rest of the peninsula is recognized by most of the Arab League, save Algeria (a big sponsor of Sahrawi independence), Syria and Mauritania (which took the southern part of Western Sahara in 1975, calling it Tiris al-Gharbiyya or Western Tiris, battled the Polisario until withdrawing in 1979, then recognized the SADR on February 27, 1984).
