Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara in the context of "International recognition of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic"

The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), also known as the Sahrawi Republic and Western Sahara, is a partially recognized state in the western Maghreb, which claims the non-self-governing territory of Western Sahara, but controls only the easternmost one-fifth of that territory. It is recognized by 44 UN member states and South Ossetia. Between 1884 and 1975, Western Sahara was known as Spanish Sahara, a Spanish colony (later an overseas province). The SADR is one of the two African states in which Spanish is a significant language, the other being Equatorial Guinea.

The SADR was proclaimed by the Polisario Front on 27 February 1976, in Bir Lehlou, Western Sahara. The SADR government calls the territories under its control the Liberated Territories or the Free Zone. Morocco occupies the rest of the disputed territory, and calls these lands its Southern Provinces. The claimed capital city of the SADR is Laayoune (the largest city of the Western Sahara territory). Since the SADR does not control Laayoune, it has established a temporary capital in Tifariti, although most of the day-to-day administration happens in Rabuni, one of the Sahrawi refugee camps located in Tindouf, Algeria.

The Free Zone or Liberated Territories (Arabic: المنطقة الحرة, romanized: al-minṭaqa al-ḥurra) is a term used by the Polisario Front government of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, a partially recognized sovereign state in the western Maghreb, to describe the part of Western Sahara that lies to the east of a 2,200-kilometre (1,400 mi) border wall flanked by a minefield, often referred as the Berm, and to the west and north of the borders with Algeria and Mauritania, respectively. It is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, as opposed to the area to the west of the Berm, which is occupied by Morocco as part of its Southern Provinces. Both states claim the entirety of Western Sahara as their territory.

The zone was consolidated as a Polisario-held zone in a 1991 cease-fire between the Polisario Front and Morocco, which had been agreed upon together as part of the Settlement Plan. Morocco occupies the areas west of the Berm, including most of the territory's population. The cease-fire is overseen by the United Nations' MINURSO forces, charged with peacekeeping in the area and the organization of a referendum on independence.

Sahrawi nationalism (Arabic: القومية الصحراوية) is a political ideology that seeks self-determination of the Sahrawi people, the indigenous population of Western Sahara. It has historically been represented by the Polisario Front. It came as a reaction against Spanish colonialist policies imposed from 1958 on, and subsequently in reaction to the Mauritanian and Moroccan invasions of 1975.

Its main opposing ideologies have been Spanish colonialism (Spanish Sahara, 1884–1975), Mauritanian irredentism (Tiris al-Gharbiyya, 1975–1979) and Moroccan irredentism (Southern Provinces, 1975-present).

Clashes between military forces belonging to the Kingdom of Morocco and the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), represented at the United Nations by the Polisario Front, broke out in the disputed region of Western Sahara in November 2020. It was the latest escalation of an unresolved conflict over the region, which is largely occupied by Morocco, but 20–25% is administered by the SADR. The violence ended a ceasefire between the opposing sides that had held for 29 years in anticipation of a referendum on self-determination that would have settled the dispute. Despite the establishment of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara in 1991, the referendum was never held.

Tensions between Morocco and the Polisario Front deepened in mid-October 2020 when Sahrawi peaceful protesters blocked a controversial road connecting Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara to sub-Saharan Africa. The protesters camped on the road near the small village of Guerguerat, which passes through a 5-kilometre-wide buffer strip monitored by the UN. Despite the controversy, the route had grown in economic importance, such that the protest stranded about 200 Moroccan truck drivers on the Mauritanian side of the border. According to the MINURSO, both Morocco and Polisario deployed forces near the area in late October, with Mauritanian forces reinforcing their positions along its border with Western Sahara.

The Moroccan Western Sahara Wall or the Berm, also called the Moroccan sand wall (Arabic: الجدار الرملي, romanized: al-jidār ar-ramliyya, lit. 'sand wall'), is an approximately 2,700 km-long (1,700 mi) berm running south to north through Western Sahara and the southwestern portion of Morocco. It separates the Moroccan-occupied areas (the Southern Provinces) on the west from the Polisario-controlled areas (Free Zone, nominally Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic) on the east. The main function of the barriers is to prevent a Sahrawi state, keeping independence-seekers away from the region's natural resources, located in the Moroccan-occupied part of the territory.

According to maps from the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in many places the wall extends several kilometers into internationally recognized Mauritanian territory.

As part of the Western Sahara conflict, the Kingdom of Morocco has sponsored settlement schemes that have enticed thousands of Moroccan citizens to relocate to the Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. This regulated migration has been in effect since the Green March in 1975, and it was estimated in 2015 that Moroccan settlers accounted for two-thirds of the 500,000 inhabitants of Western Sahara.

Under international law, the transfer of Moroccan citizens into the occupied territory constitutes a direct violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (cf. Turkish settlers in Northern Cyprus and Israeli settlers in the Palestinian territories).

Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra (Arabic: العيون - الساقية الحمراء, romanized: al-ʿuyūn as-sāqiya l-ḥamrāʾ) is one of the twelve administrative regions of Morocco. It is mainly located in the disputed territory of Western Sahara: the western part of the region is occupied by Morocco and the eastern part is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. The region as claimed by Morocco covers an area of 140,018 square kilometres (54,061 sq mi) and had a population of 451,028 as of the 2024 Moroccan census. The capital of the region is Laâyoune.