Many important lasting security struggles around the world, and especially on the African continent, are repeatedly overshadowed by other singular or flaring crises or by extraordinary natural disasters. In the case of the indigenous peoples of the Western Sahara, the Sahrawis, their struggle to regain their territory lost during colonial times is an ongoing conflict hardly ever mentioned in International News. Ever since Spain withdrew from the region in 1976 with no clear plan for the transition of power, Western Sahara, located in the North-West region of the African continent, has been contested by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) led by the Polisario Front, a national liberation movement fighting for independence of Western Sahara, against Morocco for over 45 years.¹ Morocco claims ownership over Western Sahara from before Spain colonized it in 1884, and the Polisario Front advocates for territorial sovereignty belonging to the region’s indigenous population, the Sahrawis.² & ³ The ceasefire established in 1991 led to a stalemate between Morocco and the Polisario Front; however, after almost twenty years, the Polisario Front broke the ceasefire, calling for a complete withdrawal of Moroccan troops from the Western Sahara.⁴ The conflict over the Western Sahara territory “had disastrous human, economic, and political consequences across Northern Africa,” even before the most recent violations of the ceasefire.⁵ Thousands of Sahrawis are displaced from their homes, and the estimates reach upwards of 170,000 people who had to flee the violence.⁶

Displaced Sahrawis are living in refugee camps within the Tindouf Province of Algeria, and are facing harsh conditions of exile, isolation, and poverty.⁷ Under international law, the Sahrawis living under the control of the Polisario Front bear the burden and implications of statelessness, with thousands killed because of the lack of protection.⁸ & ⁹

The Sahrawis have a rich and profound cultural and religious history, including a mix of various cultures and ethnicities. The Sahrawis are traditionally nomadic Berbers, yet distinct from Berber Tuareg nomads in the east, Arab, and black African descent.¹⁰ The period of Spanish colonization brought many Spanish traditions to the Sahrawis, even having Sahrawi youths above the age of 13 live and study with Spanish host families.¹¹ Sahrawis, like Moroccans, practice Sunni Islam, practiced by 99.9% of the population. However, although most of the population of Western Sahara practices Sunni Islam, there are small minority Christian groups, such as Moroccan Christians and foreign Roman Catholics, as well as non-Muslim foreigners who work in the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara.¹² The Polisario Front also claims to uphold a secular governance approach; however, “more recently there had been “rapprochement of some elements of the Polisario with Islamist terrorism.”¹³

After France terminated its protectorate over Morocco in 1956, the following year, in 1957, Morocco began claiming the Western Sahara as part of its pre-colonial territory 1957.¹⁴ & ¹⁵ Morocco initiated a military incursion into the region and received resistance from Spanish troops, as Spain still had control over what they labeled the “Spanish Sahara.”¹⁶ However, in 1960, Mauritania began making claims that the Western Sahara was historically theirs.¹⁷ The Western Saharan conflict now involved Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, and the Polisario Front. Spain, under pressure from the United Nations and following the impact of Morocco’s “Green March,” decolonized the Western Sahara through the Madrid Accords signed in 1975.¹⁸ The original plan was to hold a referendum to allow the Sahrawis the choice “between the annexation to Morocco and Mauritania, or to create a new state controlled by the Polisario Front.”¹⁹ Sadly, the referendum never happened.²⁰ The International Court of Justice in the Hague ruled that the indigenous people of the Western Sahara should “have the right to exercise self-rule,” legitimizing autonomy yet not giving sovereignty, which Morocco entirely opposed.²¹ . In retaliation, King Hassan II of Morocco orchestrated “The Green March” in 1975 to reclaim the Western Sahara.²²

The Green March was a mass mobilization into the Western Sahara of 350,000 Moroccans that lasted four days, including over 300,000 Moroccan citizens, over 40,000 government officials, and King Hassan II claimed everyone who participated volunteered.²³ King Hassan II also deployed troops “along the northwest region of Western Sahara… to fend off any external interference from other African countries.”²⁴ With the complete removal of Spain from the Western Sahara, Morocco and Mauritania joined forces against the Polisario Front, who were supported by Libya and Algeria, and the Western Sahara War commenced.²⁵ The Western Sahara War carried on from 1975 to 1991, and in 1979, Mauritania withdrew from the conflict, signed a peace treaty with the Polisario Front, and recognized the SADR.²⁶ Although Morocco and the Polisario Front established a ceasefire in 1991, and France recognized Morocco’s claim of sovereignty over Western Sahara in July 2024, tensions between Morocco, the Polisario Front, and the Sahrawis were still brewing, which led to the end of the ceasefire in 2020.²⁷

Security challenges have persisted since the conflict over Western Sahara began. The presence of natural resources in the Western Sahara stood at the heart of the fierce altercations and motivated the Spanish colonization. The Western Sahara holds a considerable amount of phosphorus, so much so that in 2018 alone, Morocco shipped over 1.9 million tonnes of phosphate out of Western Sahara, estimated at over $160 million.²⁸ Under Morocco’s state-owned company “OCP SA,” Morocco has held steady control over the Bou Craa mine, which holds most of Western Sahara’s phosphorus deposits.²⁹ Morocco has controlled the Bou Craa mine for almost 50 years since Spain withdrew from the region in 1976.³⁰ The Sahrawis have “consistently protested the trade, ” claiming the territory rightfully belongs to them.³¹

With the breakdown of the 1991 ceasefire agreement by the Polisario Front and the return of active violence, more security issues continue to arise. Although the Polisario Front has returned to its armed campaign, the Sahrawis have been broadly supporting the offensive measures because of the ineffective peace process led by the United Nations, and even pressuring the Polisario Front to use force to alter the status quo.³² With over 170,000 Sahrawis living in the refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria, they are eager to see the Polisario Front resist against not only Morocco, but even “international calls to de-escalate the conflict and return to negotiations.”³³ Furthermore, the Polisario Front’s leaders are now facing a generational transition, with many of the leaders well into their 60s and 70s, causing further challenges for the resistance group.³⁴

Morocco has also violated the human rights of the Sahrawis, most notably during the COVID-19 pandemic.³⁵ After the ceasefire broke down during the COVID-19 pandemic, “Morocco’s crackdown was swift and furious.”³⁶ Morocco conducted home raids, house arrests, detentions, torture, and harassment of not only Sahrawis, but also human rights defenders, journalists, and even minors.³⁷ When fighting broke out between the Polisario Front and Morocco, Morocco seized the Guerguerat of Western Sahara, and U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the region, rupturing diplomatic ties between Algeria and Morocco.³⁸ Algeria even reinstated Visa requirements after a 20-year exemption for Moroccan nationals, escalating growing tensions between the two nations.³⁹

The Sahrawis anchor their culture in traditions passed from generation to generation through oral storytelling. Yet, technology has inserted a new dimension into the conflict over the past decade in the area of cyber warfare. Today’s conflicts require not only a boots-on-the-ground approach, but also prioritizing one’s defenses for the digital space, a key target for many nations and most vulnerable to incursion by hacktivist groups. In terms of the Western Saharan conflict, pro-Algerian hacktivist groups took on the digital playing field and launched cyber attacks at Morocco.⁴⁰ The cyber attacks include “(Distributed Denial of Service) (DDoS) attacks, data theft and leaks, and website defacement.”⁴¹ There have also been cyber attacks that have specifically targeted Moroccan and Western Saharan activists.⁴² A new mobile malware known as “Starry Addax,” which “pretends to be a variant of the Sahara Press Service app, run by a media agency associated with SADR,” has been uncovered by researchers of the “Cisco Talos and the Yahoo Advanced Cyber Threats Team.”⁴³ & ⁴⁴ The malware spreads through phishing attacks, steals sensitive information from victims’ devices, and tricks victims into downloading more malware, including ‘FlexStarling,’ “a versatile Android Trojan that… allows the attacker to control infected devices.”⁴⁵ & ⁴⁶ Drone strikes have also emerged due to the escalation of this digital fight.

The conflict has already taken lives on both sides. A Sahrawi military leader was killed in a drone strike in April 2021, several Sahrawi fighters and a Polisario Front commander were killed in October 2023, and the Polisario Front fired rockets into the Al-Mahbes, a UN-monitored buffer zone in Western Sahara, in October 2024.⁴⁷ & ⁴⁸ In the neighboring Sahel region, levels of terrorist attacks, recruitment of youth, and support for military coups have infected all bordering countries to the east and south. The Sahel region spans from North-East Africa, Eritrea, to North-West Africa, Senegal, and partially into Mauritania, which both border Western Sahara.⁴⁹ The growing level of terrorism in this part of Africa, more particularly, the adjacent Western region, poses significant security challenges for Western Sahara and its regional instability. With Western Sahara currently amidst a major conflict between the Polisario Front and Morocco, and the region not recognized as an independent state, but instead “a Non-Self-Governing Territory lacking any administrative power,” it creates a security vacuum that terrorist groups within the Sahel region might want to exploit.⁵⁰ & ⁵¹ Terrorist groups such as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) and the Islamic State in the West African Province (ISWAP) could capitalize on the security vacuum in Western Sahara and form shifting alliances to gain control of it.⁵² This national and human security risk only exacerbates the safety and predicaments the Sahrawis currently face.

The four decades plus long conflict over Western Sahara between Morocco and the Sahrawis’ Polisario Front has seen failed attempts at security, from the “Security Council Resolution 690,” to a UN-backed referendum that Morocco stalled.⁵³ While less prominent in the media, the Western Sahara conflict symbolizes the typical patterns of complex security intersectionality that build on the legacy of colonial destruction and today’s resource rush dimension of ethnic preservation and sovereignty claims. Although other current conflicts also deserve international attention, such as the Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Palestine conflicts, the international community ought to invest in sustainable solutions for Western Sahara. One can no longer ignore the significant security issues brought to bear on the Sahrawis, the Polisario Front, and Morocco. The Western Sahara conflict combines human rights violations, issues of statelessness, cyber warfare, the fight for control over natural resources, and regional instability which the international community should no longer ignore. As the Western Sahara conflict persists, these security issues will become more severe, and will require a genuine conflict transformation process. Actual change must address the root causes of the national, regional, and human security challenges plaguing the Sahrawis and Morocco. The international community must collaborate with regional stakeholders to seek a resolution, but not through meetings held thousands of miles away from the conflict or over a video call; they must actively engage with the local community and local leaders, and solve these security risks in a sustainable way.