Guelta Zemmur

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Guelta Zemmur (or Guelta Zemour, Tamazight for "olive tree pool") is a small town or village in the Moroccan-administred territory of Western Sahara.

The town is based around an oasis, retaining rain water for long times. It was a camp site for the Sahrawi nomads of the area for hundreds of years.

It functioned as one of the most important military strongholds for the indigenous Polisario Front guerrilla after the retreat of Spain from what was then Spanish Sahara. As Morocco and Mauritania asserted control over the former Spanish colony from the north and south according to the Madrid Accords, Guelta Zemmur acted as a stopping-point for refugees en route to the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria.

It was also noted for the Guelta Zemmur conference on November 28, 1975, on the heels of the Ain Ben Tili conference. A gathering of some members of the formerly Spanish-backed Djema'a was held in the town, where they agreed to support Polisario and dissolve the Djema'a and joint the Polisario Front.

During the 1975-91 war between Polisario and Morocco, there were several battles over control of Guelta Zemmur, the heaviest taking place on March 24-27 and October 13, 1981. Presently, the town is controlled by Morocco as part of what it claims as its Southern Provinces. It now holds a Moroccan military base with a satellite communications center, and the areas around the town (which is close to the Moroccan Wall) are heavily mined.