The Western Sahara, with its population of around 617,598 is located in north-east Africa, with Morocco to its north, a small strip forming a border with Algeria to its north-east,
Mauritania to its south and east and the Atlantic Ocean to its
west. It's
a disputed territory between the Polisario Front, which mainly
operates out of Algeria, and Morocco without formal country status
however effectively occupied by Morocco after it annexed the
northern two thirds of the territory in 1976 and then claimed the
rest of the Western Sahara as its own in 1979.
Morocco
cite that the Western Saharan is a natural part of its kingdom whilst the
Polisario Front demand independence for the territory. UN brokered talks have
continued to stall not least because there is no consensus on who should be
able to vote in any proposed referendum.
There are an estimated 165,000 Sahrawi refugees out of the Western Sahara's population living in these camps at Tindouf, Algeria, (a further 26,000 refugees live in
Mauritania) located in the Sahara Desert where temperatures often soar above 50 degrees
and there is little or no vegetarian. Food, water and supplies are furnished by
international aid agencies.
The
United Nations reports that 10% of the children there under the age of five suffer
malnutrition whilst for a third of those children the
malnourishment is acute. Matters are compounded by the camps having limited access to safe water.
Natural events have added to the misery with flash rains and floods engulfing
the camps. Given the nature of the territory there are no current direct
opportunities to sponsor a child in the Western Sahara, however many children in need of a sponsor are refugees living in camps in neighbouring
Algeria.
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