Moroccan Wall
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The Moroccan Wall is a 2,720 km-long system of defensive walls/berms, running mainly through Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara. A minor section is located in the southeastern portion of Morocco. It is dubbed The Wall of Shame by the Polisario Front and other Sahrawi independence-seekers.
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Physical structure
The barrier is longer than the Israeli West Bank barrier and the Berlin Wall. It consists of sand and stone walls about three meters in height, with bunkers, fences and landmines throughout. Military bases, artillery posts and airfields dot the interior behind the wall at regular intervals, and radar masts and other electronic surveillance equipment scan the areas in front of it.
It was gradually built beginning in 1983, with its main function being to protect the Moroccan-controlled portions of Western Sahara against the guerrilla fighters of the Polisario Front, who have sought Western Saharan independence since before Spain ended its colonial occupation in 1975. Effectively, the Polisario controls all areas to the east of the barrier, but these areas are mostly uninhabited. Units from the United Nations mission MINURSO separate the two sides.
Many of Western Sahara's native Sahrawi people live as refugees in camps in the Tindouf province of Algeria, where the Polisario is based. Because the barrier is doubled in many places, with a significant distance between the two halves, many Sahrawis live in this no-man's-land with profound constraints on mobility and accessibility.
International reaction
Western attention to the Moroccan Wall, and to the Morocco annexation of the Western Sahara in general, has been minimal, apart from in Spain. Once a year, a small demonstration is held against the barrier by a few human rights activists, many of them Italian.
In Africa, the annexation of Western Sahara by Morocco has attracted somewhat more attention: Algeria, which supports the Polisario, and the Organization of African Unity/African Union and United Nations have proposed negotiated solutions.
Construction of the wall
The wall was built in six stages, and the area behind the wall was expanded from a small area near Morocco in the north, to most of the western and central part of the country gradually. The walls built were:
- 1st wall (Aug 1980-Jun 1982) surrounding the "useful triangle" of El-Aaiun, Smara and the phosphate mines at Bu Craa.
- 2nd wall (Dec 1983-Jan 1984)
- 3rd wall (Apr 1984-May 1984)
- 4th wall (Dec 1984-Jan 1985)
- 5th wall (May-Sep 1985)
- 6th wall (Feb-Apr 1987)