Bir Lehlou is an oasis town in north-eastern Western Sahara, 236 km from Smara, near the Mauritanian border and east of the border wall, in Polisario Front-held territory. It has a pharmacy, a school and a mosque. It is the head of the 5th military region of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and was the factual temporary capital of SADR until Tifariti became the temporary capital in 2008. It is also the name of a Daïra of the Wilaya of Smara, in the Sahrawi refugee camps.
Inauguration of the school "José Ramón Diego Aguirre" in Bir Lehlou, May 20, 2005
Gas station in Bir Lehlou. August 14, 2011.
Western Sahara is a disputed territory on the northwest coast of Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 80% is occupied and administered by neighboring Morocco. It has a surface area of 266,000 square kilometres (103,000 sq mi). It is the second most sparsely populated country in the world and most sparsely in Africa, mainly consisting of desert flatlands. The population is estimated at about 500,000, of which nearly 40% live in Morocco-controlled Laayoune, the largest city in Western Sahara.
Intermittent lake Dait Um Saad
Commemoration of the 30th independence day from Spain in the Liberated Territories (2005)
A demonstration in Madrid for the independence of Western Sahara
A MINURSO car (left), and a post of the Polisario Front (right) in 2017 in southern Western Sahara