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Occupied by [[Spain]] until the late 20th century, Western Sahara has been on the [[United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories|United Nations list of non-self-governing territories]] since 1963 after a Moroccan demand.<ref>Mariano Aguirre, [http://www.tni.org/archives/act/463 ''Vers la fin du conflit au Sahara occidental, Espoirs de paix en Afrique du Nord Latine''] in: ''Le Monde diplomatique, Novembre 1997''</ref> It is the most populous territory on that list, and by far the largest in area. In 1965, the [[United Nations General Assembly|UN General Assembly]] adopted its first resolution on Western Sahara, asking Spain to decolonize the territory.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/20/ares20.htm |author=United Nations General Assembly |date=16 December 1965 |title=Resolutions Adopted by the General Assembly During Its Twentieth Session – Resolution 2072 (XX) – Question of Ifni and Spanish Sahara}}</ref> One year later, a new resolution was passed by the General Assembly requesting that a referendum be held by Spain on self-determination.<ref name="MINURSO">{{cite web |url=http://minurso.unmissions.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=JaHM1%2Fa%2FAww%3D&tabid=3959 |title=Milestones in the Western Sahara conflict |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227033515/http://minurso.unmissions.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=JaHM1%2Fa%2FAww%3D&tabid=3959 |archivedate=27 February 2012 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> In 1975, Spain relinquished the administrative control of the territory to a joint administration by Morocco (which had formally claimed the territory since 1957)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/documentos/98/DT-15-2004-E.pdf |publisher=[[:es:Real Instituto Elcano]] |last=González Campo |first=Julio |title=Documento de Trabajo núm. 15 DT-2004. Las pretensiones de Marruecos sobre los territorios españoles en el norte de África (1956–2002) |language=Spanish |page=6 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304042159/http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/documentos/98/DT-15-2004-E.pdf |archivedate=4 March 2016 }}</ref> and Mauritania.<ref name="MINURSO" /> A war erupted between those countries and a [[Sahrawi people|Sahrawi]] nationalist movement, the [[Polisario Front]], which proclaimed the [[Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic]] (SADR) with a [[government in exile]] in [[Tindouf]], Algeria. Mauritania withdrew its claims in 1979, and Morocco eventually secured ''de facto'' control of most of the territory, including all the major cities and natural resources. The United Nations considers the Polisario Front to be the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people, and maintains that the Sahrawis have a right to [[self-determination]].<ref>{{cite web|title=United Nations General Assembly Resolution 34/37, The Question of Western Sahara|url=https://undocs.org/A/RES/34/37 |id=A/RES/34/37 |website=undocs.org|publisher=United Nations|accessdate=28 March 2017|language=en|date=21 November 1979}}</ref>
Since a [[United Nations]]-sponsored ceasefire agreement in 1991, two thirds of the territory (including most of the Atlantic coastline
{{As of|2017}}, no other [[member state of the United Nations]] has ever officially recognized Moroccan [[sovereignty]] over parts of Western Sahara.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/en/sc/repertoire/93-95/Chapter%208/AFRICA/93-95_8-3-%20WESTERN%20SAHARA.pdf|title=Report of the Secretary-General on the situation concerning Western Sahara (paragraph 37, p. 10)|format=PDF|date=2 March 1993|accessdate=4 October 2014}}</ref>{{Failed verification|talk=UN Report on Western Sahara|reason=Looked but didn't find paragraph 37, p. 10|date=September 2018}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wsrw.org/a105x1410|title=Western Sahara not part of EFTA-Morocco free trade agreement – wsrw.org|first=Western Sahara Resource|last=Watch|website=www.wsrw.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.scilj.se/news/international-law-allows-the-recognition-of-western-sahara/|title=International law allows the recognition of Western Sahara – Stockholm Center for International Law and Justice|date=7 November 2015|publisher=}}</ref> However, a [[Political status of Western Sahara#States supporting Moroccan claims on Western Sahara|number of countries have expressed their support]] for a future recognition of the Moroccan annexation of the territory [[Western Sahara Autonomy Proposal|as an autonomous part of the Kingdom]]. Overall, the annexation has not garnered as much attention in the [[international community]] as many other disputed annexations (e.g. [[Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation|the Russian annexation of Crimea]]).{{fact|date=November 2018}}<!--While this is undoubtedly true, it should have a secondary source stating this explicitly-->
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In the waning days of General [[Francisco Franco|Franco]]'s rule, and after the [[Green March]], the Spanish government signed a [[Madrid Accords|tripartite agreement]] with Morocco and Mauritania as it moved to transfer the territory on 14 November 1975. The accords were based on a bipartite administration, and Morocco and Mauritania each moved to annex the territories, with Morocco taking control of the northern two-thirds of Western Sahara as its [[Southern Provinces]], and Mauritania taking control of the southern third as [[Tiris al-Gharbiyya]]. Spain terminated its presence in Spanish Sahara within three months, repatriating Spanish remains from its cemeteries.<ref>Tomás Bárbulo, "La historia prohibida del Sáhara Español," ''Destino, Imago mundi,'' Volume 21, 2002, Page 292</ref>
The Moroccan and Mauritanian annexations were resisted by the [[Polisario Front]], which had gained backing from [[Algeria]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7091323//|title=Algeria Claims Spanish Sahara Is Being Invaded|last=|first=|date=1 January 1976|work=The Monroe News-Star|access-date=19 October 2016|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> It initiated guerrilla warfare and, in 1979, Mauritania withdrew due to pressure from Polisario, including a bombardment of its capital and other economic targets. Morocco extended its control to the rest of the territory. It gradually contained the guerrillas by setting up [[Moroccan Western Sahara Wall|the extensive sand-berm in the desert]] (known as the Border Wall or Moroccan Wall) to exclude guerrilla fighters.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/05/western-sahara-struggle-freedom-cut-wall-150528065625790.html|title=Western Sahara's Struggle for Freedom Cut Off By a Wall|last=McNeish|first=Hannah|date=5 June 2015|work=Al Jazeera|access-date=17 October 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/is-one-of-africas-oldest-conflicts-finally-nearing-its-end|title=Is One of Africa's Oldest Conflicts Finally Nearing Its End?|quotation=For the past forty years, tens of thousands of Moroccan soldiers have manned a wall of sand that curls for one and a half thousand miles through the howling Sahara. The vast plain around it is empty and flat, interrupted only by occasional horseshoe dunes that traverse it. But the Berm, as the wall is known, is no natural phenomenon. It was built by the Kingdom of Morocco, in the nineteen-eighties, and
=== Stalling of the referendum and Settlement Plan ===
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{{See also|List of human rights organisations}}
[[POLISARIO]] has received criticism from the French organization [http://www.france-libertes.fr/ France Libertes] on its treatment of Moroccan prisoners of war,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.freethemnow.org/FranceLiberte.pdf |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20051211175842/http://www.freethemnow.org/FranceLiberte.pdf |archivedate=11 December 2005 |title=The Conditions of Detentions of the Moroccan POWs Detained in Tindouf (Algeria) |publisher=Web.archive.org |date=11 December 2005 |accessdate=13 November 2011}}</ref> and on its general behaviour in the Tindouf refugee camps in reports by the [[Belgium|Belgian]] commercial counseling society [[European strategic intelligence and security center|ESISC]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.esisc.net/en/p.asp?TYP=TEWN&LV=187&see=y&t=37&PG=TEWN/EN/detail_os&l=8&AI=1840 |title=The Polisario Front and the IRA – Two approaches to the process of negotiation |publisher=Esisc.net |accessdate=13 November 2011 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110918134233/http://www.esisc.net/en/p.asp?TYP=TEWN&LV=187&see=y&t=37&PG=TEWN%2FEN%2Fdetail_os&l=8&AI=1840 |archivedate=18 September 2011 |df=dmy-all }}</ref><ref>ESISC is [http://kbopub.economie.fgov.be/kbopub/toonondernemingps.html?ondernemingsnummer=878853652 a Brussels-based commercial firm in the domain of counselling], including among its clients the Moroccan embassy in Belgium</ref> Social anthropologist of the Sahara Desert, Konstantina Isidoros, said that in both 2005 and 2008, ESISC issued two near-identical reports proclaiming distorted truths that Polisario is evolving to new fears terrorism,{{what|date=June 2018}} radical Islamism or international crime. According Isidoros "lies appear to play some peculiar importance in this report".<ref>Konstantina Isidoros. [https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1951/9a64ad4b0e97872d03e42d752087ace599ce.pdf#page=65 Western Sahara and the United States' geographical imaginings] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170827165230/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1951/9a64ad4b0e97872d03e42d752087ace599ce.pdf#page=65 |date=27 August 2017 }} // ACAS Concerned Africa Scholars, BULLETIN N°85
A number of [[Polisario defections|former Polisario officials]] who have defected to Morocco accuse the organisation of abuse of human rights and sequestration of the population in Tindouf.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/News/fr-press/docs/1996/19961010.CPSD108.html |title=Quatrème Commission: Le Maroc rest attaché au plan de règlement et a la tenue d'un référendum transparent au Sahara Occidental |publisher=United Nations |accessdate=13 November 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/991105/1999110536.html |title=Report: Clan wars and unavoidable scission in Tindouf, defectors |publisher=Arabicnews.com |date= |accessdate=12 May 2012 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014201349/http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/991105/1999110536.html |archivedate=14 October 2013 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>
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In 2011, leaked [[United States diplomatic cables leak|United States diplomatic cables]] revealed that the territory is somewhat of an economic burden for [[Morocco]];<ref name=leak1/> the Moroccan US$800 million subsidy program to Western Sahara was said to be one of the larger per-capita aid programs in history.<ref name=leak1/> Supporting life in a territory with scarce freshwater resources is extremely costly. For example, all drinking water for the city of [[Laayoune]] comes from desalinization facilities and costs 3 US dollars per cubic meter but is sold at the national price of 0.0275 US dollars; the difference is paid for by the government of Morocco.<ref name=leak1/> Fuel is sold at half the price, and basic goods are heavily subsidized;<ref name=leak1/> businesses operating in the territory do not pay taxes.<ref name=leak1/> All of this is done to keep the balance of Western Sahara's finances.<ref name=leak1/> The territory is otherwise thought to be economically unviable and unable to support its population without the Moroccan subsidies.<ref name=leak2>{{cite web |title=Western Sahara: Preparing the GOM For Autonomy and Negotiations with the Polisario |url=https://wikileaks.org/cable/2006/03/06RABAT389.html |date=2006-03-02 |work=US Embassy in Rabat cable |publisher=Wikileaks |accessdate=23 September 2011}}</ref> The cable concluded that the territory is unlikely to ever be of any economic benefit for Morocco even if offshore oil fields were to be discovered and exploited.<ref name=leak1/>
Due to the disputed nature of Moroccan sovereignty over the territory, the application of international accords to Western Sahara is highly ambiguous. Political leadership of trade agreement signatories such as the United States (US-Morocco Free Trade Agreement) and Norway (European Free Trade Association trade accord) have made statements as to these agreements' non-
=== Exploitation of natural resources ===
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