olisario Front| Frente Popular para la Liberacion de Saguia el Hamra y Rio de Oro

The Saharawi people have not remained passive spectators at the invasion and bartering of their land.
After 1958, there were sporadic demonstrations against the Spanish domination, but it was in 1967 that the struggle began to take organized form with the creation of the Movement for the Liberation of the Sahara (see Bassiri). An intensive campaign to mobilize the Saharawi people on behalf of their independence led to a massive demonstration, in 1970, against the efforts by the colonial power to turn the Sahara into a Spanish province. The Spaniards reacted by massacring the demonstrators and dissolving the liberation movement.
Having understood that there was no other way out, the Saharawis decided to take up armed struggle. On 10 May 1973, the Constitutive Congress for the Front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro, known as the POLISARIO Front, was held.
Shortly afterwards, the first armed action was carried out. Such actions have caused an escalation of bombardments, massacres and torture of the civilian population who have been forced to make a mass exodus to the areas controlled by the POLISARIO Front and over the border to Tindouf in Algeria,which has been supporting the struggle of the Saharawis for self-determination.