Moroccan Walls in Western Sahara

In 1975, Spain completely withdrew from Spanish Morocco when Morocco annexed the northern two-thirds of the region, and Mauritania annexed the southern third. A local resistance group called the Polisario Front, backed by Algeria, challenged the claims Morocco and Mauritania were making and staged a guerilla war to fight for the independence of Western Sahara.

Mauritania withdrew in 1979, leaving Morocco to claim the entire territory. During the 1980s, Morocco constructed a series of sand and stone walls to restrict the Polisario Front to the eastern side of the territory, with a narrow strip to the south along the Mauritanian border. The map in Figure 7.18 shows the location of these walls and indicates when they were built.