Tifariti
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Tifariti is a small town or village located in Polisario-controlled Western Sahara, east of the Moroccan Berm. It is part of what Polisario call the Free Zone and Morocco call the Buffer Zone.
Primarily a nomadic encampment, it was always a kind of seasonal town for the Sahrawis,an Arabic-speaking Bedouin people controlling the area since medieval times. Now mostly in ruins, it is estimated that Tifariti had a population of approximately 7,000 inhabitants in 1975. Its inhabitants largely abandoned the town in 1976 because of the war with Morocco.[1] Tifariti never had many fixed structures, due to the nomadic lifestyle of the Sahrawis. It is located in a rugged desert area, with little vegetation. Tifariti is located between a traditional spiritual centre of the Sahara, the tomb of Ma El Ainin (50 km) and the Algerian town of Tindouf (90 km).
Tifariti was the place of several battles during the Moroccan-Polisario war (1975-1991) and served as a military base and stronghold for both sides at various points of the war. It was used as a stopping place for Sahrawi refugees en route to Tindouf, Algeria during the invasion phase. During the 1980s, the Moroccan Wall was constructed north of Tifariti, and the terrain around the town remains heavily mined.
Hospitals and administrative buildings were built here between 1989 and 1991 by foreign aid agencies in preparation for a Sahrawi refugee return to Western Sahara, for the holding of a UN-backed referendum on either independence or integration with Morocco.
A United Nations airstrip and a base for the Minurso's peace keeping forces is situated close to Tifariti. [2]
In October 2002, the Polisario held its XI General Popular Congress here, electing officials to its executive National Secretariat, the exile parliament of the Sahrawi National Council, as well as reelecting Mohamed Abdelaziz as Secretary General, as has been the case since 1976.
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[edit] Notes
- ^ Marvin Howe, Saharan Guerrillas Roam Freely In Territory Ceded to Moroccans, New York Times, 15 mars 1977 lire en ligne
- ^ Michael Bhatia, Western Sahara under Polisario Control: Summary Report of Field Mission to the Sahrawi Refugee Camps (near Tindouf, Algeria) in Review of African political economy, number 88, june 2001, version en ligne
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