El Aaiún
| العيون El Aaiún |
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| Coordinates | 27 ° 9 ′ N , 13 ° 12 ′ W | ||
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| Basic data | |||
| Country | Western Sahara | ||
| Moroccan region | Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra | ||
| ISO 3166-2 | EH | ||
| Residents | 217,700 (2014) | ||
Moulay Abd el Aziz Friday mosque from 1978 in neo-Moorish style on the east side of the Place du Mechouar
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El Aaiún ( Arabic العيون, DMG al-ʿUyūn ; Plural ofالعين / al-ʿAyn / 'the source', Central Atlas Tamazight ⵍⵄⵢⵓⵏ Leɛyun ), French spelling Laâyoune , German Ajun , also El-Ayoun, El-Aioun; is the largest city in the Western Sahara territory administered by Morocco and the capital of the Moroccan administrative region Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra . According to the constitution of the exiled Sahrawi independence movement Frente Polisario , El Aaiún is to become the capital of the Democratic Arab Republic of the Sahara . Founded in 1938 on Spanish colonial territory , El Aaiún became its capital in 1958 and expanded rapidly in the 1970s thanks to the economically profitable phosphate mining near Bou Craa . The city has been under Moroccan control since 1975/76. De facto , Tifariti is the capital.
location
El Aaiún means “the springs” and refers to the groundwater resources on the Saguia el Hamra , a dry river ( Oued ) that begins in the stone desert in the east and is stopped at sand barriers north of the city. The city is located 25 kilometers from the coast of the Atlantic in a poorly vegetated, slightly undulating desert landscape with stony and sandy surfaces. The basin of the Saguia el Hamra is covered with reddish soils, which ensure that the river and the only larger freshwater lake in the country, to which it accumulates at the end of the rainy season in autumn, lives up to its name al-ḥamrāʾ ("red"). In the west and north, the city is surrounded by sand dunes ( erg ) , which are blown by the strong winds, especially in summer. Dense bushes with tamarisks and Nitraria retusa (family of the Nitrariaceae ) only grow in the river valley .
The city is located on the only thoroughfare that connects Morocco with Mauritania along the West African coast. The distance to Tan-Tan , the first major city to the northeast, is 236 kilometers and further to Agadir a total of 500 kilometers. To the southwest, the second largest city, Ad-Dakhla, is 540 kilometers away. The oldest city to be founded in Western Sahara is Smara inland, which is reached on a 240-kilometer asphalt road built in the 1960s. In El Aaiún Playa , 30 kilometers south-west, is the phosphate loading port to which the mineral from Bou Craa, around 100 kilometers south-east, is transported. The port also has quays for general cargo loading. The small seaside resort of Foum el Oued, 25 kilometers away on the Atlantic coast, is ideal for a day trip.
El Aaiun Hassan I Airport is located two kilometers southwest of the city center .
Population development
| year | 1982 | 1994 | 2004 | 2014 |
| Residents | 113.411 | 136,950 | 183,691 | 217,732 (province) |
The enormous increase in population only began after the start of phosphate mining and the occupation of the Western Sahara areas by Morocco in 1975/76.
history
The earliest reports by Arab seafarers from the Maghreb date from the 14th century. They came from the Maghreb and mostly reached the coast shipwrecked. As devout Muslims , they were warmly received by the already Islamized population. The dry Saguia el Hamra river was known to European travelers by land around 1350. In the 15th century there was a small town of the same name on the coast that was a center for Islamic scholars and Sufi saints.
The establishment of settlements on the Western Saharan coast at the end of the 19th century was less due to the colonial intentions of the Spanish monarch, but rather to the will of five business companies that were founded in Madrid between 1876 and 1884 and wanted to conclude trade agreements with the Sahrawis. The search for suitable locations in the Rio de Oro Bay to the south led to the establishment of Villa Cisneros (today Ad-Dakhla ) at the end of 1884 . For the northern part of Western Sahara, the Spanish claims were only confirmed in a treaty with France of November 12, 1912, and the province of Saguia el Hamra was defined as "outside Moroccan territory". This enabled the area to become a Spanish colony.
Until 1934, the Spaniards restricted their presence to small settlements on the coast from which they traded with the inland. The Spanish traders had no intention of subjugating the Sahrawis as long as they refrained from attacking the Spanish settlements, nor would they have had the opportunity to stop the raids (ghazzi) by the Sahrawis. This was left to the French, who finally "pacified" the rebels in April 1934 in several skirmishes near Ifni , which was part of the Spanish colonial area. In May, the Spaniards sent a military command inland for the first time to occupy Smara.
Where Lieutenant Colonel Del Oro found plenty of drinking water in 1938, the Spaniards founded El Aaiún, which in the first few years consisted of a few houses around a garrison in which almost exclusively Europeans lived. In January 1958, the colonial area Africa Occidental Española was dissolved by decree and the associated administrative areas Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro declared the Spanish province of Western Sahara (Sahara español) , although the character of a colony could only be obscured on paper. El Aaiún became the capital of this province. There was the official residence of a governor-general, who had to be a high military officer and had the final responsibility within the province.
In 1962 the still small towns of Aaiún and Villa Cisneros received the status of municipalities (terminos municipales), with the right to elect city councils (ayuntamientos) . Places of lesser status were Smara and La Gouira . The twelve city councilors of Aaiún were elected no more democratically than their counterparts in Spain during the Francoist dictatorship. In the first elections in May 1963, seven Spaniards and five Sahrawis came to the council with a turnout of around 80 percent.
It was not until the beginning of the 1970s that El Aaiún was expanded into a modern city, after the phosphate mining in Bou Craa, which had begun a decade earlier, and the construction of the new loading port spurred investment in the region. The result was a business center with a rectangular network of streets, restaurants and a number of hotels that were designed almost exclusively for the needs of European expats . At the same time, the number of Sahrawis moving into the city increased sharply. Many of them settled in tents ( chaimas ) or makeshift dwellings on the outskirts. In this way, virtually separate quarters for the different population groups were created without any official discrimination in this area. According to the figures of the Spanish colonial administration, there were exactly 3545 Europeans living in the city in 1963, 5842 in 1967 and over 10,000 in 1974, the last Spanish census. The number of Sahrawis was given as 5021 for 1963 and 28,499 for 1974. The military presence has always been consistently high, about one soldier for every four to five civilians.
From the autumn of 1974, demonstrations by supporters of the Polisario Front increased in the cities; On October 13, for example, Sahrawi workers and the unemployed demonstrated in Aaiún for higher wages and social security based on the example of European workers. Students called for the introduction of Arabic teaching content, higher scholarships and better accommodation. After several strikers were arrested, Polisario supporters protested with further strikes.
El Aaiún remained the administrative seat of the Spanish Sahara colony until the withdrawal of Spain, which was decided in the Madrid Agreement on November 14, 1975. In early November, Morocco reaffirmed its claim to Western Sahara with the Green March , during which many of the 350,000 or so Moroccan civilians gathered were brought across the border. Because of the Spanish military presence, the planned advance to El Aaiún did not take place. On November 25, Moroccan soldiers entered the city's Spanish barracks . Fighters from the Polisario Front continued their uprising violently against the Moroccan occupation. By the end of 1975, the Europeans left the city, most of the Sahrawis fled to refugee camps in the area of Tindouf in Algeria.
According to the agreement between Morocco and Mauritania of April 14, 1976, the northern two thirds of Western Sahara were added to the Moroccan sector, including El Aaiún, which a few months later became the capital of one of the three new southern provinces. Now the forced influx of thousands of Moroccans began, who soon made up the majority of the population. With the construction of the Moroccan Wall from 1982, the location in the city became safe, so that the number of inhabitants in 1984 including the surrounding area was about 90,000.
Moroccans were encouraged to immigrate through higher wages, tax breaks, the right to a home and schooling. Jobs were created in administration, in the service sector in general and in construction. In order to reaffirm its claim to the Western Sahara as part of Morocco, the state invested a lot of money in the expansion of the infrastructure in El Aaiún as in the other cities of the Western Sahara. The construction of wide streets, new mosques and the creation of central squares were part of this, as was the significantly improved water and electricity supply. It is criticized that many of these projects were carried out for reasons of prestige and did not correspond to the interests of the local population. A dozen new hotel buildings for tourists, a sports stadium with 35,000 seats, large mosques, a zoo and an exhibition hall have turned out to be oversized for the low number of visitors in all cases.
Regardless of the unresolved, politically resolved conflict in Western Sahara, there are social problems in the city that cannot be resolved with structural investments alone. Unemployment is high, resulting in an increasing crime rate . Between 1998 and 2002 there were several riots in the streets, some of which were instigated by school leavers with no job prospects. This affects Moroccans and Sahrawis alike. The city administration is countering the dissatisfaction in the population with a mixture of smaller concessions and greater pressure, which can be seen from the outside world by a high police presence at all crossroads.
After many years of relative external calm, a protest movement of Sahrawis formed in October 2010, who wanted to draw attention to the unresolved Western Sahara conflict and to their social and economic situation. Over several weeks, the Gdaim Izyk tent camp ten kilometers east of El Aaiún grew to around 12,000 peaceful demonstrators due to the constant influx of people from the urban suburbs and from further afield. On November 8, Moroccan security forces violently stormed the camp, killing at least 11 and injuring numerous others. In a resolution by the European Parliament on November 23, the attack was described as serious and disproportionate.
In the 2004 census , the population was 183,691, which had grown to 217,732 in the 2014 census.
Cityscape
The oldest part of the city around the former garrison rises over several levels on the slope of the southern bank of the river. Here, in the side streets and alleys, the three-storey blocks of houses with small shops from Spanish times are built close together. To the west of the central square of this quarter (Place Hassan II) , which is bordered by the stucco facade of the hospital, lies the church from 1954 with a barrel roof made of a concrete shell. The church, consecrated to Francis of Assisi , was designed in 1950 at General Franco's request, together with the church of Ad-Dakhla, by the same architect who is also responsible for the Valle de los Caídos near Madrid . Closer to the river and to the west, the small, but well-kept part of the city turns into poor informal quarters .
In contrast, to the south, at the highest point of the city, is the disproportionately large parade ground ( Place du Mechouar ), which was designed for representation purposes and on which the Friday mosque , built in 1978 in neo-Moorish style, is located. At the north end it is bordered by a conference building, in which a parliamentary session was held in 1985 to mark the opening. According to the planners, the square should have become the central point of attraction for the population and visitors. Instead, it underlines the rather sterile character of the city as a modern commercial and administrative center. The airport runway ends to the southwest of this open space, and a spacious residential and business district with wide streets extends to the southeast. As is typical for many Moroccan cities, the modern city districts that were built after 1976 are designed in a pink or brick-red color with a few white areas in between.
The city center is surrounded by a ring of quickly and unplanned blocks of flats that accommodate most of the residents.
Others
The municipal football club is called Jeunesse d'El Massira .
El Aaiún has been the seat of the Western Sahara Apostolic Prefecture of the Roman Catholic Church since 1954 .
Personalities
A well-known resident of the city is Aminatou Haidar (* 1966), who is sometimes referred to as "Gandhi of the Western Sahara" in the foreign media because of her non-violent engagement in the Western Sahara conflict.
Town twinning
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Málaga , Spain
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Montevideo , Uruguay
literature
- Tony Hodges: Western Sahara. The Roots of a Desert War. Lawrence Hill Company, Westport, Connecticut 1983
- John Mercer: Spanish Sahara. George Allen & Unwin Ltd, London 1976
- Anthony G. Pazzanita, Tony Hodges: Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara. 2nd ed. The Scarecrow Press, Metuchen / New York / London 1994
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mercer, p. 46
- ^ Foum el-Oued. Riviera of the Sahara. LookLex
- ↑ Recensement Général de la Population et de l'Habitat 2014. Kingdom of Morocco, April 8, 2015.
- ↑ Population statistics Western Sahara
- ↑ Hodges, p. 48
- ↑ Hodges, pp. 49, 52, 64 f.
- ↑ Hodges, p. 69.
- ↑ Hodges, pp. 135, 139 f.
- ↑ Mercer, p. 199.
- ↑ Hodges, p. 197 f.
- ↑ Pazzanita, p. 110 f.
- ↑ Pazzanita, p. 112.
- ^ Motion for a resolution. European Parliament, 23 November 2010
- ↑ Population légale […] d'après les résultats du RGPH 2014. Haut Commissariat au Plan, Morocco, April 8, 2015 (PDF, Arabic, French).
- ↑ Mercer, p. 207
- ↑ The Gandhi of the Western Sahara. Die Presse, December 14, 2009 (accessed January 3, 2012)
- ↑ Hermanamiento de Montevideo y El Aaiún, December 13, 2009 ( Memento of December 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Montevideo City Council website (Spanish).