Western Sahara is a disputed territory located in North Africa, bordered by Morocco, Algeria, and Mauritania, with a coastline along the Atlantic Ocean. Historically, the region was inhabited by nomadic Berber and Arab tribes, collectively known as Sahrawis. In the late 19th century, Western Sahara became a Spanish colony, known then as Spanish Sahara. Following a rise in nationalist sentiment and armed resistance by the Polisario Front throughout the 1970s, Spain withdrew in 1975, leading to competing territorial claims by Morocco and Mauritania. Mauritania soon relinquished its claim, but Morocco annexed much of the territory, sparking a long-running conflict with the Polisario Front, which declared the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in exile. Today, Western Sahara remains a disputed territory, with Morocco controlling most of the land and the Polisario Front seeking independence. The United Nations considers it a non-self-governing territory and has facilitated decades of stalled negotiations, making Western Sahara one of the world’s most protracted, unresolved colonial disputes.