Everytime I see a data map on some topic, Western Sahara is always filed under ”No Data” or something similar. I know that the area is disputed by Morocco and some self governing body in the area, but that’s all I know. Is this like an Israel-Palestine thing, or something else?
Spanish here, and not really versed on the matter, but I’ll share what I heard. It borderlines conspiracy theories so take it con a stone of salt.
Basically it was part of Spain, with the civil war and following years it was considered a hassle and left abandoned, despite saharauis can get Spanish nationality. During decolonization the UN said that spain should decolonise it and help to stablish an autonomous government. Spain did nothing because it stopped recognising the territory as their own. Therefore it becomes no body’s land. Morroco has interest on that area and saharauis has interest on being independants. Spain doesn’t care and just use it for politics with Morroco.
The far left say say that saharauis should be protected, but the rest doesn’t really care and sometimes it is used as a political leverage with Morroco. There are even conspiracies teorías that the kin Juan Carlos was a CIA agent or at least sympatizer and has helped on maintain the ignore west Sahara issue among other policies with north africa.
Pons_Aelius@kbin.social 1 year ago
From what I can gather, that is pretty much the reason.
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is the self governing body you mentioned but it is only recognised by about 50 nations.
My guess is that, to avoid upsetting Morocco most demographers just give it the "No Data" flag and move on.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 year ago
That’s part of it, but the other part is that, like its name suggests, it’s the Sahara. Most of it is unknown territory for most of the world. Maybe a tribe here or there has been through it, but that’s it.
charlytune@mander.xyz 1 year ago
I’m a bit confused by your comment and what you mean by “a tribe here or there has been through it” and that it’s unknown territory? It’s sparsely populated, but according to Wikipedia about 500k people live there, and they’re mostly in urban areas. Surely the lack of data is more down to the political disputes over who governs it? I’d imagine the locals are reluctant to share information with the Moroccan government who they see as the occupiers.