Lagouira

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coordinates: 20°50′N 17°5′W / 20.833, -17.083
Lagouira
Lagouira Location in Western Sahara
Country	‎ controlled by Morocco
Claimed by	Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

Lagouira (La Agüera) or La Gouera is a town on the Atlantic coast at the southern tip of Western Sahara, on the western side of the Ras Nouadhibou peninsula. By 2002, it had been abandoned and partially overblown with sand, inhabited only by a few Imraguen fishermen^[1] and guarded by a Mauritanian military outpost, despite this not being formally Mauritanian territory. (It is the southernmost town of Western Sahara, claimed by both Morocco and the Polisario Front; however, Lagouira is situated south of the Moroccan Wall, and abandoned by both Moroccan and Polisario forces.)

Called La Agüera when it was a short-lived Spanish colonial possession, La Agüera came into existence in 1920, when Spain established an air base on the western side of the peninsula, just a few miles away from the French Fort Etienne (now Nouadhibou) on the eastern side of the same peninsula. (In the 1912 Convention of Madrid, Spain and France had agreed on a border between Mauritania and Spanish possessions that ran down the middle of the peninsula.)

Lagouira is located at 20°50′N 17°5.5′WCoordinates: 20°50′N 17°5.5′W.