Essays: Saharawi Refugees in Algeria

In 1975 Morocco annexed most of the Western Sahara when Spain, it's coloniser, withdrew. Around half of the native Saharawis fled to Algeria, where they still live in camps run by the Polisario, Western Sahara's Algerian-backed liberation front. The fighting between Morocco and Polisario has cooled, but the conflict is still unresolved. Now the parties and the UN are gearing up for a new attempt, since solving Western Sahara is the key to undoing the mini cold-war between Morocco and Algeria that has crippled the region for years.