Western Sahara War The Western Sahara War was an armed struggle between the Sahrawi indigenous Polisario Front and Morocco between 1975 and 1991 , being the most significant phase of the Western Sahara conflict . The conflict erupted after the withdrawal of Spain from the Spanish Sahara in accordance with the Madrid Accords ( signed under the pressure of the Green March ) , by which it transferred administrative control of the territory to Morocco and Mauritania , but not the sovereignty . In late 1975 , Moroccan government organized the Green March of some 350 , 000 Moroccan citizens , escorted by around 20 , 000 troops , who entered Western Sahara , trying to establish Moroccan presence . While at first met with just minor resistance by the POLISARIO , Morocco later engaged a long period of guerilla warfare with the Sahrawi nationalists . During the late 1970s , the Polisario Front , desiring to establish an independent state in the territory , successively fought both Mauritania and Morocco . In 1979 , Mauritania withdrew from the conflict after signing a peace treaty with the POLISARIO . The war continued in low intensity throughout the 1980s , though Morocco made several attempts to take the upper hand in 1989 - 1991 . A cease - fire agreement was finally reached between the Polisario Front and Morocco in September 1991 . Some sources put the final death toll between 10 , 000 and 20 , 000 people . The conflict has since shifted from military to civilian resistance . A peace process , attempting to resolve the conflict has yet produced any permanent solution to Sahrawi refugees and territorial agreement between Morocco and the Sahrawi Republic . Today most of the territory of Western Sahara is under Moroccan control , while the inland parts are governed by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic , managed by the Polisario Front . Background . Spanish Sahara . In 1884 Spain claimed a protectorate over the coast from Cape Bojador to Cap Blanc . Later , the Spanish extended their area of control . In 1958 Spain joined the previously separate districts of Saguia el - Hamra ( in the north ) and Río de Oro ( in the south ) to form the province of Spanish Sahara . Raids and rebellions by the indigenous Saharan population kept the Spanish forces out of much of the territory for a long time . Ma al - Aynayn the Saharan caïd of Smara started an uprising against the French in the 1910s , at a time when France had expanded its influence and control in North - West Africa , he died in the same year and his son El Hiba succeeded him . French forces defeated him when he tried to conquer Marrakesh , and in retaliation destroyed the holy city of Smara in 1913 . Not until the second destruction of Smara in 1934 , by joint Spanish and French forces , did the territory finally become subdued . Another uprising in 1956 - 1958 , initiated by the Moroccan Army of Liberation , led to heavy fighting , but eventually the Spanish forces regained control , again with French aid . However , unrest simmered , and in 1967 the Harakat Tahrir arose to challenge Spanish rule peacefully . After the events of the Zemla Intifada in 1970 , when Spanish police destroyed the organization and " disappeared " its founder , Muhammad Bassiri , Sahrawi nationalism again took a militant turn . Conception of the Polisario Front . In 1971 a group of young Sahrawi students in the universities of Morocco began organizing what came to be known as " The Embryonic Movement for the Liberation of Saguia el - Hamra and Rio de Oro " . After attempting in vain to gain backing from several Arab governments , including both Algeria and Morocco , but only drawing faint notices of support from Libya and Mauritania , the movement eventually relocated to Spanish - controlled Western Sahara to start an armed rebellion . The beginnings of armed struggle . The Polisario Front was formally constituted on 10 May 1973 in the Mauritanian city of Zouirate , with the express intention of militarily forcing an end to Spanish colonization . Its first Secretary General was El - Ouali Mustapha Sayed . On 20 May he led the Khanga raid , Polisario ' s first armed action , in which a Spanish post manned by a team of Tropas Nomadas ( Sahrawi - staffed auxiliary forces ) was overrun and rifle s seized . Polisario then gradually gained control over large swaths of desert countryside , and its power grew from early 1975 when the Tropas Nomadas began deserting to the Polisario , bringing weapons and training with them . At this point , Polisario ' s manpower included perhaps 800 men , but they were backed by a larger network of supporters . A UN visiting mission headed by Simeon Aké that was conducted in June 1975 concluded that Sahrawi support for independence ( as opposed to Spanish rule or integration with a neighbouring country ) amounted to an " overwhelming consensus " and that the Polisario Front was by far the most powerful political force in the country . Timeline . Spanish withdrawal . While Spain started negotiating a handover of power in the summer of 1975 , it ceded the administrative control of the territory to Mauritania and Morocco only after signing the Madrid Accords . However , on 31 October 1975 , Moroccan troops crossed into the territory from the north - east , advancing towards Mahbes and Farciya . Moroccan government organized the Green March of some 350 , 000 Moroccan citizens , escorted by around 20 , 000 troops , who entered Western Sahara , trying to establish Moroccan presence . While , at first meeting just minor resistance by the Polisario , Morocco had later engaged into a long guerilla warfare with the Sahrawi nationalists . During the late 1970s , After Moroccan pressure through the Green March of 6 November , Spain entered negotiations that led to the signing of the Madrid Accords by which it ceded unilaterally the administrative control of the territory to Mauritania and Morocco on November 14 , 1975 . The United Nations did not recognize the accord , considering Spain as the administrative power of the territory . In the fall of 1975 , as a result of the Moroccan advance , tens of thousands of Sahrawis fled Morocco - controlled cities into the desert , building up improvised refugee camps in Amgala , Tifariti and Umm Dreiga . Moroccan attack . On December 11 , 1975 first Moroccan troops arrived to El Aaiún , and fighting erupted with the POLISARIO . On December 20 , Mauritanian troops succeeded taking over Tichla and La Güera , after two weeks of siege . On January 27 , the first battle of Amgala erupted between Morocco and POLISARIO , lasting 3 days . Morocco accused Algeria of military presence of behalf of the POLISARIO , which was later denied by Algeria . In January 1976 , the Royal Moroccan Air Force also bombed the refugee camps in the northern part of the territory . The following month , Moroccan jets attacked the Umm Dreiga refugee camps with napalm and white phosphorus bombs , killing thousands of civilians . On February 26 , 1976 Spain officially announced its full withdrawal from the area . Declaration of Sahrawi Republic and guerilla warfare . The Polisario Front proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic on 27 February 1976 , and waged a guerrilla war against both Morocco and Mauritania . The World Court at the Hague had issued its verdict on the former Spanish colony just weeks before , which each party interpreted as confirming its rights on the disputed territory . After the completion of the Spanish withdrawal , and in application of the Madrid Accords in 1976 , Morocco took over the Saguia El Hamra and the northern two thirds of the territory , while Mauritania took control of the southern third . It was ratified with 14 April 1976 agreement . The Polisario Front retaliated the Moroccan offensive with guerilla attacks , and moved their base to Tindouf in western Algeria , where first refugee camps were established in May 1976 . For the next two years the Polisario movement grew tremendously , as Sahrawi refugees flocked to the camps fleeing from the Moroccan and Mauritanian armies , while Algeria and Libya supplied arms and funding . Within months after the 1975 - 1976 Moroccan offensive , Polisario had expanded to thousands of armed fighters . The reorganized army was able to inflict severe damage through guerrilla - style hit - and - run attacks against Moroccan forces in Western Sahara but also raided cities and towns in Morocco and Mauritania proper . Mauritanian and French involvement . Mauritania , under the regime of Ould Daddah , had a weakened army of 3 , 000 men , which was unable to fend off the attacks . After repeated strikes at the country ' s principal source of income , the iron mines of Zouerate , the government was nearly incapacitated by the lack of funds and the ensuing internal disorder . Ethnic unrest in the Mauritanian Armed Forces also strongly contributed to the ineffectiveness of the army : forcibly conscripted black African s from the south of the country resisted getting involved in what they viewed as a northern intra - Arab dispute , and the tribes of northern Mauritania often sympathized with Polisario , fearing possible Moroccan regional ambitions and resenting perceived increasing dependence of the Daddah regime on Moroccan support . In 1977 , France intervened after a group of French technicians was taken prisoner during a raid on the Zouerate iron mines , codenaming its involvement Opération Lamantin . The French Air Force deployed SEPECAT Jaguar jets to Mauritania in 1978 under the orders of President Valéry Giscard d ' Estaing , which repeatedly bombed Polisario columns headed for Mauritania with napalm . The Polisario Front launched a raid on the capital Nouakchott , during which Polisario leader El Ouali was killed , and was replaced by Mohamed Abdelaziz , with no letup in the pace of attacks . Under continued pressure , the Daddah regime finally fell in 1978 to a coup d ' état led by war - weary military officers , who immediately agreed to a cease fire with the Polisario . A comprehensive peace treaty was signed on August 5 , 1979 , in which the new government recognized Sahrawi rights to Western Sahara and relinquished its own claims . Mauritania withdrew all its forces and would later proceed to formally recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic , causing a massive rupture in relations with Morocco . King Hassan II of Morocco immediately claimed the area of Western Sahara evacuated by Mauritania ( Tiris al - Gharbiya , roughly corresponding to the southern half of Río de Oro ) , which was unilaterally annexed by Morocco in August 1979 . Stalemate ( 1980s ) . From the mid - 1980s Morocco largely managed to keep Polisario troops off by building a huge berm or sand wall ( the Moroccan Wall ) . The Moroccan army stationed a number of troops roughly the same size as the entire Sahrawi population to defend the wall , enclosing the Southern Provinces , the economically useful parts of Western Sahara ( Bou Craa , El - Aaiun , Smara etc . ) . This stalemated the war , with no side able to achieve decisive gains , but artillery strikes and sniping attacks by the guerrillas continued , and Morocco was economically and politically strained by the war . Morocco faced heavy burdens due to the economic costs of its massive troop deployments along the Wall . To some both economical and military extent aid sent by Saudi Arabia , France and by the U . S . A . relieved the situation in Morocco , but matters gradually became unsustainable for all parties involved . Escalation 1989 - 1991 . On 7 October 1989 , Polisario launched a massive attack against Moroccan troops in Guelta Zemmour ( Centre of Western Sahara ) and Amgala . 1991 Tifariti offensive was the last military operation in Western Sahara War launched by Moroccan forces and its allies against the Sahrawi guerrilla fighters of the Polisario Front . During August – September 1991 the Royal Moroccan Army ( RMA ) conducted offensive operations in the areas of Mehaires , Tifariti and Bir Lahlou . Cease - fire and aftermath . A cease - fire between the Polisario and Morocco , monitored by MINURSO ( UN ) has come into effect on 6 September 1991 , with the promise of a referendum on independence the following year . The referendum , however , stalled over disagreements on voter rights , and numerous attempts at restarting the process ( most significantly the launching of the 2003 Baker plan ) seem to have failed . The prolonged cease - fire has held without major disturbances , but Polisario has repeatedly threatened to resume fighting if no break - through occurs . Morocco ' s withdrawal from both the terms of the original Settlement Plan and the Baker Plan negotiations in 2003 left the peace - keeping mission without a political agenda : this further increased the risks of renewed war . International incidents . On 24 June 1975 , a Land Rover of the Spanish Army struck a land mine as it was patrolling the Spanish Sahara - Morocco border , killing the five soldiers inside . On 25 June 1975 , two reconnaissance planes from the Spanish Air Force were attacked by Moroccan forces near the Spanish Sahara - Morocco border . On 17 January 1980 , the Spanish SPS Almirante Ferrandiz ( D22 ) destroyer was machine - gunned by a Moroccan Mirage airfighter , 5 miles away the southern coast of Western Sahara . The Spanish destroyer had received a S . O . S . from a Spanish fishing vessel that had been previously detained by a Moroccan patrol boat . On 24 February 1985 , the " Polar 3 " , a Dornier 228 - type research airplane from the Alfred Wegener Institute was shot down by guerrillas of the Polisario Front over Western Sahara . All three crew members died . " Polar 3 " , together with unharmed " Polar 2 " , was on its way back from Antarctica and had taken off in Dakar , Senegal , to reach Arrecife , Canary Islands . The German government , which did not recognize Morocco ' s claim to Western Sahara at the time and remained neutral in the conflict , heavily criticized the incident . In 1984 , Polisario shot down two Moroccan and a Belgian airplane as well .