Formerly a Spanish colonial territory, and since 1975 occupied by Morocco, the Western Sahara - at the western edge of the continent -has been called Africa's last remaining colony. With the beginning of a guerrilla war against Morocco in 1975, most of the Western Saharan population - the Sahrawis - had to flee across the border into south-western Algeria, settling in refugee camps. Most of the refugees expected this to be a short-lived episode abroad, before they would be able to return to their home country. No one knew that the camps they were setting up near the city of Tindouf would still be the focus of the Sahrawis' political, social, cultural and economic life more than forty years later.
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