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Western Sahara

Western Sahara is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. The Western Sahara, given its name in 1975 by the UN, is the last African colonial state yet to achieve its independence. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic; the remaining 80% of the territory is occupied and administered by neighboring Morocco.

Entities

Our standard dataset contains 19 entities connected with Western Sahara. This may include sanctioned entities, politically-exposed persons (PEPs), and their close associates, or entities involved in criminal activity.

Data sources

We are not yet including any data published by authorities or organizations based in Western Sahara. See our global list of data sources and our criteria for selecting datasets.

Sanctions programs/policies targeting Western Sahara

We are not yet including any targeting entities that are based in Western Sahara.

Politically-exposed persons (PEPs)

Our database contains 14 entities identified as PEPs connected with Western Sahara.

National government positions

Number of known occupants
Diplomatic rolesCurrentEndedStatus unclear
ambassador of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic-32

Subnational government positions

No positions for this category

Other positions

Number of known occupants
PositionCurrentEndedStatus unclear
President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic--2

What do these numbers mean?

We keep track both if political positions and the individuals who occupy those positions over time. Of course, a person can hold a position for multiple terms, and multiple people can occupy the same position at the same time (e.g. members of parliament).

If a person previously held a position, and currently holds the same position, they are only counted once and recorded under Current. If it is unclear from the source whether they have left the position, they will be counted under Unclear.

How can status be unclear?

Some of the data sources we rely on indicate both past and present holders of political offices. In those cases, a lack of a precise end date for a person's occupancy of a position can mean that we don't know whether they currently hold the position or not. Read more...