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Western Sahara: Looking for Hope in the Desert

Western Sahara is never front-page news, but it deserves more attention. Its political status is the subject of one of Africa’s longest territorial disputes, a puzzle of realpolitik and rule of law that has lasted 34 years. Morocco contends that it should have sovereignty over Western Sahara while granting the region some measure of political and cultural autonomy. The Polisario Front, the government-in-exile of Western Saharan ethnic groups, holds that the territory’s final status should be decided in a referendum, with the option of independence. The protracted lack of a solution has fostered terrorism, and resulted in human rights abuses and lost economic opportunities.