Western Sahara is considered by the UN as the last territory in Africa yet to be decolonized. After more than 40 years of illegal occupation by Morocco (with the complicity of USA and EU) the Sahrawies are divided by the “Wall of Shame”. This wall is the longest in the world with 2,720 km, and is surrounded by 40 million land mines. On one side of the wall 200.000 Sahrawies survive in refugees camps in the middle of the desert also called the “The Devil’s Garden”, on the other side, the occupied territories the resistance to the occupation suffer from the harsh repression.
However, the Sahara is not on the news and the Sahrawies are a forgotten people. The Sahrawies have been waiting for a referendum, that has never happened, since 1999, when the peace treaty agreement was signed in the UN. Meanwhile international corporations profit from the extraction of the biggest Phosphorus mine in the would and from its rich sea.
– Why do we not know about the Sahrawies?
– How did we get to this situation?
– Who stands to gain by the status quo?
Come find it out in our Basta debate of the 14th of January.