Echoes of Occupy in Western Sahara

Foreign Policy in Focus

By Leslie Garvey

In the fall of 2010, on the outskirts of the Western Saharan capital of Laayoune, the “occupy” movement came to North Africa. 

For over three weeks, thousands of Sahrawis gathered at the Gdeim Izik protest camp to peacefully protest job discrimination, poor living conditions, the misallocation of Western Sahara's rich resources, and human rights abuses.

But this was no Zuccotti Park. What followed, according to Western Sahara expert Jacob Mundy, was “the most violent 48 hours witnessed by Western Sahara” since the UN ceasefire in 1991.

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