La Güera

La Güera (also known as Tagwirt, Lagouira, or El Gouera) (Berber: ⵜⴰⴳⵡⵉⵔⵜ, Arabic: الكويرة) is a ghost town on the Atlantic coast at the southern tip of Western Sahara. It is on the western side of the Ras Nouadhibou peninsula. The ghost town is  west of Nouadhibou. It is also the name of a daira at the Sahrawi refugee camps in south-western Algeria. The name comes from the Spanish word  which is a ditch which carries rainwater to the crops. By 2002, it had been abandoned and parts of it had been covered by sand. At the time, only a few Imraguen fishermen lived thereAbdallah Ben Ali, Guéguerre à Lagouira, Maroc Hebdo International, issue 534, 22–28 November 2002 Redouane Ramdani, Enquête: Aux frontières du réel , TelQuel, issue 248, 18–24 November 2004 and the area was guarded and controlled by a Mauritanian military outpost, despite this not being formally Mauritanian territory.

La Güera is the southernmost town of Western Sahara. It is claimed by both the Kingdom of Morocco and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Lagouira is situated south of the Moroccan Wall, and abandoned by both Moroccan and POLISARIO forces.

References

Category:Settlements in Western Sahara