Dakhla is a city in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, currently occupied by Morocco. It is the capital of the claimed Moroccan administrative region Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab. It has a population of 106,277 and is on a narrow peninsula of the Atlantic Coast, the Río de Oro Peninsula, about 550 km (340 mi) south of Laayoune.
Dakhla, Western Sahara
Mosque in Dakhla
Early Spanish provisional settlement in the Río de Oro Peninsula during the exploratory works led by Emilio Bonelli (published in January 1885 in La Ilustración Española y Americana).
Windsurfer and the Dragon Island in the background
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
