Umm Dreiga

Umm Dreiga (Arabic: أم دريكة‎‎) (or Oum Dreiga) is an oasis town in the Río de Oro area of Western Sahara.

It served as a shelter & improvisated refugee camp for Sahrawi refugees in late 1975 and early 1976, after the Moroccan and Mauritanian annexation of Western Sahara (then known as Spanish Sahara). In February 1976, the Moroccan Air Force used napalm and fragmentation bombs[1].[2][3][4][5] against the refugee columns, causing hundreds of casualties and international protest. The refugees then moved on through the Sahara desert towards Tindouf, Algeria, where most of them remain in refugee camps today.

The town saw several battles until 1981, between the Polisario front and the Army of Morocco, but ultimately ended up in the Moroccan-held part, to the west of the Moroccan Wall, thus included in what Morocco terms its "Southern Provinces".

References

  1. ↑ Real Instituto El Cano
  2. ↑ Nationalism, Identity and Citizenship in Western Sahara 17 August 2007- THE JOURNAL OF NORTH AFRICAN STUDIES PABLO SAN MARTIN
  3. ↑ Surendra Bhutani, Conflict on Western Sahara, Strategic Analysis, 1754-0054, Volume 2, Issue 7, 1978, Pages 251 – 256.
  4. ↑ A brief history of the Western Saharan people's struggle for freedom
  5. ↑ Tomás Bárbulo, La historia prohibida del Sáhara Español, Destino, Imago mundi, Volume 21, 2002, Pages 284-285

Coordinates: 24°10′N 13°15′W / 24.167°N 13.250°W / 24.167; -13.250


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