The 2026 FiSahara Film Festival marked the 50th anniversary of the Saharawi exile in the desert in Algeria. Minutes after the withdrawal of the Spanish colonialists from Western Sahara in 1975, the Mococcan army invaded, led by an apparently apolitical but devestating civilian invasion called the Green March. Upwards of 200,000 civilians from Morocco crossed the border into Western Sahara, followed by the Moroccan miitary. Morocco has remained as occupiers ever since, applying strict rules of governance which quickly quelled resistance from the indigenous Sahrawis, often by violence and political oppression.
Rather than face cruel suppression, many Sahrawis crossed the border into Algeria, where the government established compounds near the border with Morocco, where exiled Sahrawis could live. The main compounds became acknowledged Refugee camps named after the principal cities in Western Sahara and remain so today. A Government, the Polisario, was formed in exile and the stand off between Western Sahara and Morocco became largely a guerilla war which went on for over 20 years. Sahrawi military crossed from Algeria into Western Sahara, seeking to reclaim territory. Morocc built huge earthen walls called ‘berms’ to resist the offences, whilst destroying resistance in the Western Saharan cities.
Western Sahara are still claiming their right to return to their homeland, a right supported by the United Nations though practically denied by an allegiance of western Governments who side with Morocco. There has been much investment by western industries in exploitation of the natural resources of Western Sahara,
