The two North African neighbors are quarreling over Western Sahara. A territory that Morocco wants to keep while granting it autonomy, while Algeria supports the Sahrawi independence movement.
Listening to the Algerian and Moroccan authorities, each has every reason to accuse the other of the worst. On August 24, 2021, the two countries, which share nearly 1,600 kilometers of borders, finally broke off all diplomatic relations. And Algeria has stopped supplying gas to its neighbor.
The status of Western Sahara at the heart of the crisis
The primary reason for this quarrel is the status of Western Sahara. This immense desert territory has been claimed by Morocco since its independence in 1956 (it was a French protectorate), but also by the Saharawi movement of the Polisario Front, supported by Algeria, which is demanding independence.
Because the desert hides immense riches. According to the Sahara Online site, Western Sahara, the last Spanish colony in Africa, contains deposits of phosphate and various minerals, including iron.
An incomplete decolonization
In 1974, Spain began a process of decolonization and proposed a self-determination referendum under the aegis of the United Nations: the Sahrawis must decide whether they want to become independent or Moroccan.
But the King of Morocco, Hassan II, launched the “green march” on November 6, 1975, which mobilized 350,000 civilian volunteers. Spain signs a few days later, on the 14th, the Madrid agreements, which provide for the sharing of the Saharawi territory between Morocco and Mauritania.
A year later, the Polisario Front announced the creation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), which in 1982 became a member of the African Union, an organization bringing together almost all the countries of the continent. However, according to international law and the UN, the Sahara remains a “non-autonomous” territory and can only become sovereign after the holding of a referendum.
Spain changes position
In December 2020, recalls the website of the Moroccan weekly Tel Quel, Donald Trump announced on Twitter the “recognition” by the United States of Morocco’s “sovereignty” over the Sahara.
Last March, Madrid decided, in a sudden reversal of its usual position (support for a referendum) to approve the Moroccan autonomy project for the Saharan territory, inside the kingdom. Immediately Algeria decided to “proceed with the ‘immediate’ suspension of the friendship treaty” which bound it to Madrid while qualifying this reversal as “unacceptable”, notes the Algerian daily L’Expression .
A lasting fracture?
North Africa is not immune to the global fault lines accentuated by the war in Ukraine. In June, a military exercise in the Moroccan region of Agadir involved various countries, including Morocco, the United States, and, for the first time, Israel. Algeria and its traditional Russian ally are to conduct military maneuvers together in the fall, Algerian and Russian media report.
