Ghana to Support Moroccan Stand on Western Sahara

June 8, 2025

(4 Minutes Read)

The Western Sahara conflict finds its origins in the end of the Spanish colony in the region in 1975. The Polisario Front started an insurgency against the Spanish colonial forces, before waging a sixteen-year-long war of independence against Morocco and Mauritania.

Ghana, following a meeting between the Ghanaian and Moroccan foreign ministers, announced recently that it would from now on endorse Rabat’s plan for autonomy of the territory, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, established by the independence-seeking Polisario Front, since 1979. The region is proposed to be governed on the lines of Spanish autonomous regions like the Basque Country or Catalonia.

Earlier, Ghana had supported Algeria in the dispute over the territory of Western Sahara. That recognition has come to an abrupt end. The proposed plan for autonomy of the territory has so far not been accepted by the Algeria-backed Polisario front, which controls around 30% of the territory in Western Sahara, with the rest largely being under Moroccan control.

But the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic established by the Polisario Front has found only limited international recognition over time. Despite being recognised at some points by as many as 80 countries, several states have since withdrawn or “frozen” their support.

Ghana is thus the latest in a growing list of countries turning to Morocco in the resolution of the decades-long conflict instead.

The Western Sahara conflict involves a territorial dispute between Morocco and the Polisario Front, an independence movement, over the non-self-governing territory of Western Sahara. The Polar Front, a zone where warm air masses and cold air masses meet, has no direct impact on the conflict itself. The conflict is a political and military issue primarily driven by competing claims to sovereignty and the right to self-determination, rather than climate-related factors.

Western Sahara, formerly a Spanish colony, is now a disputed territory claimed by both the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front. The conflict began in 1975 after Spain withdrew from the territory and Morocco and Mauritania divided it. The Polisario Front, with support from Algeria, fought against Moroccan control in the Western Sahara War until a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991.

The ceasefire is still in place, but a planned referendum on independence has not taken place, and the conflict remains unresolved. The UN considers Western Sahara a “non-self-governing territory” and does not recognize Moroccan control.

The Polar Front is a major weather feature associated with the interaction of cold polar air and warmer temperate air, leading to the formation of weather systems like cyclones and fronts. The Polar Front typically lies in higher latitudes, far from the location of Western Sahara in Northwest Africa.