Tindouf

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Tindouf (Arabic: تندوف) is the main town in Tindouf Province, Algeria. It is close to several Algerian military bases, and also to the autonomous areas of the self-proclamed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, the government in exile of Western Sahara, which contains several Sahrawi refugee camps operated by the Polisario Front. There is an airport outside Tindouf, north-west of the town, with regular Air Algérie flights to Algiers and other cities.

For more on the Sahrawi refugee camps, see Tindouf Province.

[edit] History

The town of Tindouf was built near an isolated Saharan oasis in 1852 by members of the Sahrawi Tajakant tribe, but sacked and destroyed by Reguibat Sahrawis in 1895. It remained deserted until French troops arrived to the area in 1934. Since Algeria's independence in 1962, the town has been purposely built up, partly because of its importance as a last outpost before the Moroccan, Sahrawi and Mauritanian borders, and partly because of the influx of large numbers of refugees from Western Sahara.

In early 2006, it was the site of torrential flooding, destroying the homes of several thousand refugees . The Algerian government provided massive aid to the displaced .