Almost 50 years after Spain abandoned the Sahara, the Sahrawi conflict continues to shape Spanish foreign policy in the region. The Western Sahara is an illustrative example of a conflict that the international community has allowed to escalate. As the United Nations has pointed out, this conflict does not attract any real effort from the international community because it goes unnoticed, does not affect the hard interests of the world powers and, apparently, does not pose any risk to international peace and security.

© 2022, Los Libros de la Catarata

At present, two-thirds of the territory of Western Sahara is illegally occupied by Morocco, where it has installed settlers and exploits natural resources, while almost 200,000 Sahrawis live in refugee camps in south-west Algeria. Moreover, since November 2020, armed hostilities have resumed between the Polisario Front and Morocco. Western Sahara is also one of the great unresolved issues in Spain’s recent history. The late Franco regime ceded its last colony and its population to Morocco, violating its obligations and commitments to the United Nations. Since then, Spain has aligned itself with the occupier and has been a key player in the impunity created. This book does not pretend to be an exhaustive recapitulation of the history of the Saharawis, nor does it offer a linear, conventional explanation of the conflict. It seeks to provide elements for understanding what is at stake, and to this end it presents different aspects of contemporary Sahrawi reality and shows how it continues to be a relevant issue for Spain.

  • Title : Breve historia del Sahara Occidental
  • Author : Isaías Barreñada Bajo
  • Editor : Los Libros de la Catarata
  • Date of publication : June 2022
  • Number of pages : 144
  • ISBN : 978-84-1352-496-2
  • Price : 15,00 €