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| WESTERN SAHARA |
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| AFRICA |
BACKGROUND :
Africa covers 6 per cent of the surface of the Earth and provides 20.4 per cent of Earth’s landmass. Occupying this massive and significant territory there are 1.1 Billion people. Africa is the second largest and second most populous continent on Earth.
WESTERN SAHARA
Western Sahara has the Atlantic Ocean for its Western border, on its Northern border is Morocco, the North-Eastern border is shared with Algeria and the Eastern and Southern borders are shared with Mauritania.
The territory of Western Sahara is disputed.It had been a Spanish territory until 1975 when a United Nations resolution requested that the Spanish hold a referendum on self-determination. One year earlier the U.N. had asked Spain to de-colonise the territory.
Spain surrendered control of the territory to a joint administration of Morocco and Mauritania and this shortly led to a war betwen those countries and a local liberation movement - the Polisario Front (strongly backed by Algeria). Mauritania withdrew in 1979 and Morocco secured complete control.
In 1991 the U.N. sponsored a ceasefire giving 2/3rds of the country including the Atlantic Coast to Morocco and the remainder to SADR the organisation behind the Polisario Front.
The history of the region is not rich. It was originally Berber territory, which became Mohammedanised in the 8th Century A.D. By the early 1700s Spain had established her influence by developing a commercial fishing industry off the coast. After the Berlin Conference of 1884, Spain had claimed Western Sahara as hers.
The population is not large ,estimated at around 513,000 40% of whom live in one coastal city - Laayoune ( or El Aaiun). Commercial efforts to explore for oil and to further develop fishing have come unstuck on international legal issues related to the country's legal status.
In short Western Sahara is a good place to be (away) from.
Background:
Africa covers 6 per cent of the surface of the Earth and provides 20.4 per cent
of Earth’s landmass. Occupying this massive and significant territory there are
1.1 Billion people. Africa is the second largest and second most populous
continent on Earth.
MOROCCO
Morocco rivals even Egypt for its hold on the popular imagination, though for entirely different reasons. Morocco conjures up images of mystery, intrigue, the exotic. Even the names of a number of its cities have a romantic force that is hard to rival : Casablanca, Tangiers, Marrakesh. Strange to say, its Capital, Rabat does not enjoy the same cachet. The proximity of Morocco to Spain and "British" Gibraltar across the Strait has no doubt led to the romance. Moroccan leather binding on books has been proverbial .
Morocco is one of three independent Kingdoms in Africa ( the other two being Lesotho and Swaziland - be patient). It is a hereditary Monarchy described as having "agnatic" descent - that is from a common male ancestor and through the male line. The present Constitutional Monarch is King Mohammed VI and, though a Constitutional Monarch, he has significant legislative powers independent of the elected Parliament.
Morocco is the 40th largest country in the world , if one includes the territory of Western Sahara which it claims, but which is disputed by the local people.And it is the 18th largest country in Africa.
With a population of 33,250,000 it is the 39th most populous country in the world and the 11th most populous country in Africa. Its people are of Berber and Arab mixed descent.The official languages of the country are Arab, Berber and French.
The legal situation of civil rights in Morocco is a mixed bag tending cautiously towards great liberality since the accession of King Mohammed VI in 1999. But the influence of Sharia Law in Morocco is not insignificant. 2003 reforms to the Criminal Code codify elements of Sharia crimes as crimes in the Code of Criminal Law.The new Constitution of 2011 granted sole power to the parliament's Superior Council of the Ulemas to guide its laws through Fatwas from principles, precepts and designs of Islam.
This being said, the national custom of tolerant acceptance of vice still holds . Morocco was notorious for American and British homosexual activity and pedophilia. Although the law now accords homosexuality a three years sentence, this is usually only put into effect against Moroccan nationals. And in one notorious case of foreign pedophile activity against a Moroccan child, the King pardoned the offender, only reconsidering when riots broke out in the street.The former situation is attested to in literature - Sebastian Flyte in "Brideshead Revisited" and the Author Bruce Chatwin's activities there are among the least notorious apparently.
The territory of Morocco features substantial mountainous regions of the Atlas Mountains in the centre and the South and the Rif Mountains in the North. These mountainous regions are largely Berber occupied. Only 0.56% of the country's surface is water.About 18% of the land is arable, and 12% of the land is forest.
Morocco is surrounded by Algeria ( the border has been closed since 1994)to the East and South East, the Mediterranean to the North and the Atlantic Ocean to the West ( only Spain and France have Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts as Morocco has)and, accepting its control of western Sahara, it borders Mauretania in the South. There is an oddity however, in that three tiny Spanish controlled enclaves exist on the Mediterranean coast : Ceuta, Melilla and Penon de Velez de la Gomer. They have existed for hundreds of years. Despite this irritant, Morocco counts Spain as its largest trading partner along with France.
Although Rabat is the nation's Capital, fabled Casablanca is its largest City and main sea port.
The country is 99% Mohammedan and the King has among his titles "Commander of the Faithful" and is held to be a direct descendant of Mohammed. There is an Army of 175,000 men plus 150,000 Reservists.There is a 7,800 man Navy with 6 frigates, a corvette and 22 patrol craft.The Air Force has 13,500 personnel, Aircraft numbers are not specified, but seem to be a mix of French Mirage, and American F 16 and F5 aircraft.
