IS THE LAST REMAINING COLONY IN AFRICA. But ironically the colonial power is not now Spain, as of old, but another African nation, Morocco. In every other quarter of Africa the old colonial boundaries have been retained into the era of independence, no matter how absurdly they divide peoples with the same ethnic background. Only in Western Sahara has a people been denied its right to self-determination.
Morocco has now built a 1,500-kilometre wall which encloses the occupied territory while most of the original inhabitants, known as Saharawis, remain in refugee camps in western Algeria.
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