Explained | The Western Sahara dispute and why Algeria-Spain ties have soured

Morocco has controlled the disputed Western Sahara territory for decades while the Polisario Front comprised of indigenous people continues to fight for self-determination with the backing of Algeria

The story so far: Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced on Wednesday that Algeria would “immediately” suspend its 20-year-old treaty of “friendship, good neighbourliness, and co-operation" with Spain. Since 2002, this treaty has led to a close partnership between the two countries on migration flows, anti-human trafficking measures, as well as in the economic, financial, educational, and defence sectors.

Algeria will also be banning imports from Spain. This is being seen as an intensification of Algeria’s anger over Spain’s recent foreign policy shift on the disputed Western Sahara region.

In March, Spain endorsed a plan by Morocco which would give limited autonomy to Western Sahara, but still keep it under Moroccan rule. Morocco has controlled the majority of this disputed territory for decades. Before the recent shift, Spain had supported the United Nation’s mandate to hold a referendum in Western Sahara to allow self-determination.

In March, Algiers recalled its Ambassador to Madrid to deliberate over the issue. Algeria had also cut diplomatic ties with Morocco in 2021 over the Western Sahara issue.

Western Sahara is a vast, sparsely-populated desert region in Northwest Africa, stretching across 2.5 lakh sq km. It is bordered by Morocco in the North, Algeria in a small northeastern patch, and Mauritania in the East and South. It also has a long coast with the Atlantic Ocean in the West and Northwest. It is a region rich in phosphates and other minerals and has a lucrative fishing industry on its Atlantic coast.

With a population of a little under six lakh, this former Spanish colony is home to the nomadic indigenous Sahrawi tribe whose main language is Hassaniya Arabic. For decades, Morocco has claimed control over Western Sahara while the ethnic Sahrawi fight for their right to self-determination.

In 1884, Spain began its colonisation of Western Sahara and in the mid-1900s, turned it into a Spanish province called Spanish Sahara. Spain united the two main regions of Western Sahara — Rio De Oro and Saguia el Hamra— to constitute its province.