France has backed Morocco’s controversial autonomy plan for the disputed territory of Western Sahara.
- In a letter addressed to Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, French President Emmanuel Macron said a proposal to make Western Sahara an autonomous region of Morocco is the “only basis” to solve the long-running conflict.
- France’s shift deals a blow to the pro-independence Polisario Front.
- The Polisario Front, which claims to represent the indigenous Saharawi population, insists that Western Sahara should be an independent country free from Moroccan control.
- Western Sahara was a Spanish colony in Africa until 1975. After Spain withdrew, a war broke out between the Polisario Front and Morocco, which claimed the territory as its own.
- Tens of thousands of Saharawi refugees have for decades lived in camps across the border in Algeria due to the fighting.
- Most of the territory is currently controlled by Morocco, while a stretch of land in the east was declared as the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) by the Polisario Front.
