MoroccansMoroccans (المغاربة) are the citizens and nationals of the Kingdom of Morocco. The country's population is predominantly composed of Arabs and Berbers (Amazigh). The term also applies more broadly to any people who are of Moroccan nationality, sharing a common culture and identity, as well as those who natively speak Moroccan Arabic or other languages of Morocco. In addition to the approximately 37 million residents of Morocco, there is a large Moroccan diaspora.
MauritaniaMauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania (الجمهورية الإسلامية الموريتانية), is a sovereign country in Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to the north and northwest, Algeria to the northeast, Mali to the east and southeast, and Senegal to the southwest. Mauritania is the 11th-largest country in Africa and the 28th-largest in the world, and 90% of its territory is situated in the Sahara. Most of its population of 4.
MaghrebisMaghrebis or Maghrebians (المغاربيون) is a modern Arabic term meaning "Westerners", mainly referring to the western part of the Arab world and North Africa. Maghrebis are predominantly of Arab and Berber or mixed Arab-Berber origins. Maghrebis were known in medieval times as the Roman Africans or Moors. The term Moor is derived from Mauri, the Roman name for the Berbers of Mauretania, land of the Moors, the Roman name for the western part of the Maghreb.
SahrawisThe Sahrawis, or Sahrawi people (صحراويون ), are an ethnic group and nation native to the western part of the Sahara desert, which includes the Western Sahara, southern Morocco, much of Mauritania, and along the southwestern border of Algeria. They are of mixed Hassani Arab and Sanhaji Berber descent, as well as Sub-Saharan African and other indigenous populations. As with most peoples living in the Sahara, the Sahrawi culture is a mix of Arab and indigenous African elements.
Sahrawi refugee campsThe Sahrawi refugee camps (also romanized with Saharawi) in Tindouf, Algeria, are a collection of refugee camps set up in the Tindouf Province, Algeria in 1975–76 for Sahrawi refugees fleeing from Moroccan forces, who advanced through Western Sahara during the Western Sahara War. With most of the original refugees still living in the camps, the situation is among the most protracted in the world. The limited opportunities for self-reliance in the harsh desert environment have forced the refugees to rely on international humanitarian assistance for their survival.
ZenataThe Zenata (Iznaten; زناتة) are a group of Amazigh (Berber) tribes, historically one of the largest Berber confederations along with the Sanhaja and Masmuda. Their lifestyle was either nomadic or semi-nomadic. The 14th-century historiographer Ibn Khaldun reports that the Zenata were divided into three large tribes: Jarawa, Maghrawa, and Banu Ifran. Formerly occupying a large portion of the Maghreb (Tamazgha), they were displaced to the south and west in conflicts with the more powerful Kutama and Houara.
Polisario FrontThe Polisario Front, Frente Polisario, Frelisario or simply Polisario, from the Spanish abbreviation of Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro (Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro; al-Jabhah al-Shaʿbiyah Li-Taḥrīr as-Sāqiyah al-Ḥamrāʾ wa Wādī al-Dhahab), is a rebel Sahrawi nationalist liberation movement claiming Western Sahara.
MoorsThe term Moor is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim populations of the Maghreb, al-Andalus (Iberian Peninsula), Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a single, distinct or self-defined people. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica observed that the term had "no real ethnological value." Europeans of the Middle Ages and the early modern period variously applied the name to Arabs, Berbers, and Muslim Europeans.
Western SaharaWestern Sahara (الصحراء الغربية aṣ-Ṣaḥrā' al-Gharbiyyah; Taneẓroft Tutrimt ; Sáhara Occidental) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. The Western Sahara, given its name in 1975 by the UN, is the last African colonial state yet to achieve its independence. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 80% of the territory is occupied and administered by neighboring Morocco.
MaghrebThe Maghreb (ˈmʌɡrəb; al-Maghrib), also known as the Arab Maghreb (المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of the Arab world. The region comprises western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania (also considered part of West Africa), Morocco, and Tunisia. The Maghreb also includes the disputed territory of Western Sahara (controlled mostly by Morocco and partly by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic) and the Spanish cities Ceuta and Melilla.