The Moroccan government contends that the figure is much lower, around 45, 000 to 50, 000, and that these people are kept in the refugee camps against their will by Polisario.

However, buoyed by the increasing defection of the chiefs to its cause, the Polisario drew up a constitution and announced the formation of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic ( SADR ).

On Feb. 27, 1976, the Polisario Front formally proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and set up a government in exile, initiating a guerrilla war between the Polisario and Morocco, which continued until a 1991 cease-fire.

The majority of Saharaui People supported its patriotic actions and identified with this movement, which later was called Polisario, and gradually had more misunderstandings with the Autonomous and Central Government of the Metropoli for the signs of a vacilante, or feeble foreign policy, made up by Generals that had the " última palabra " or " last word ", feeling a possible betrayal of the Motherland.

After the Madrid Accords which transferred administration of the Spanish Sahara to Mauritania and Morocco in 1976, an exodus of refugees fled the violence that ensued, with substantial numbers ending up in the Polisario Front movement's base areas in the Algerian Sahara, where refugee camps were set up in the Tindouf Province, and a smaller number in camps in Mauritania.

Following bloody conflicts with the Polisario and deteriorating ties with Algeria, Mauritania pulled out in 1979 and gave up its share in the Western Sahara in order to avoid further complicated conflicts with the Polisario, Algeria, and Morocco.

Relations between Morocco and Mauritania continued to improve through 1986, reflecting President Taya's pragmatic, if unstated, view that only a Moroccan victory over the Polisario would end the guerrilla war in the Western Sahara.

Polisario established their own Saharaui Arab Democratic Republic, and combined guerrilla warfare with his conventional military forces: Sahrawi People's Liberation Army ( SPLA ).

The Polisario engaged in guerrilla warfare with the occupying forces.

The Algeria-backed Polisario Front proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic on February 27, 1976, and waged a guerrilla war against both Morocco and Mauritania.

The regime was not saved even by overt French Air Force backing in 1978, when SEPECAT Jaguar fighters strafed and bombed Polisario guerrilla columns en route to Mauritania.

A significant regional event was Boumédiènne's 1975 pledge of support for an independent Western Sahara, admitting Sahrawi bedouin refugees and the Polisario Front guerrilla movement to construct refugee camps in the Tindouf Province of western Algeria, as their home country was overrun by Morocco and Mauritania.

Its main function was to exclude the guerrilla fighters of the Polisario Front, who have sought Western Saharan independence since before Spain ended its colonial occupation in 1975, from the Moroccan-controlled part of the territory.

Since 1973, a Sahrawi guerrilla war led by the Polisario Front had challenged Spanish control, and in October 1975 Spain had quietly begun negotiations for a handover of power with leaders of the rebel movement, both in El Aaiún, and with foreign minister Pedro Cortina y Mauri meeting El Ouali in Algiers.

Abdelaziz has condemned terrorism, insisting the Polisario's guerrilla war is to be a " clean struggle " ( that is, not targeting private citizens ' safety or property ); he however acknowledged mistreatment to Moroccan prisoners of war as well as attacking civilian populations in Moroccan cities by the polisario, justifying this as necessary evils in times of war and that the Polisario had to use every mean in order to defend the Sahrawi population from the enemy.

Without Spanish backing, and with Franco declaring his intent to release the territory, many of the Djema ' a members hastily defected to the Polisario Front, a rebel movement which was involved in a rapidly growing guerrilla war against the Spanish presence.

A locally based Sahrawi national liberation movement, the Polisario Front launched a guerrilla war, with the crucial financial and logistical backing of Algeria and Libya ( under Gaddafi ), aiming to win independence of the territory under an " Arab Saharan republic ".

El-Ouali and another fighter were briefly captured, but they managed to escape when the remaining patrol headed by Gali overran the ill-prepared Spanish troops ; The Khanga strike was to be followed by similar attacks on isolated targets, in which the Polisario gathered weapons and equipment, until they were finally able to enter into full-scale guerrilla warfare.

At that point, the Polisario Front, backed by Algeria and Libya, reinforced a guerrilla war against Morocco and Mauritania, who had substantially larger forces and armament, mostly from French and Spanish origin.

Black Africans from the south were conscripted as front-line soldiers, after the northern Sahrawi minorities and their Moorish kin had proven unreliable in the fight against Polisario, but many of the southerners rebelled against having to fight what they considered an inter-Arab war.

But the war against the Polisario guerrillas put severe strains on the economy, and Morocco found itself increasingly isolated diplomatically.

In addition, the Polisario Front has been reported as planning a vote on a proposal for making preparations for war.

The major bulk of Saharawis became refugees during the war between the Polisario Front and Morocco.

The Polisario Front is considered by Morocco to be a Moroccan separatist movement, referring to the Moroccan origins of most of its founding members, and its self-proclaimed SADR to be a puppet state used by Algeria to fight a proxy war against Morocco.

Mauritania waged four years of war against Polisario guerrillas, conducting raids on Nouakchott, attacks on the Zouerate mine train and a coup d ' état that deposed Ould Daddah.

* Western Sahara War ( 1975 – 1991 )-A regional war pinning the rebel Polisario Front against Morocco and Mauritania.

In 1977, in the Opération Lamantin, he ordered fighter jets to deploy in Mauritania and go to war against the Polisario guerillas fighting against Mauritanian military occupation of Western Sahara.

The Polisario has repeatedly threatened to resume hostilities if a referendum cannot be held, and claims that the current situation of " neither peace, nor war " is unsustainable.

The Polisario traditionally employed ghazzi tactics, i. e., motorized surprise raids over great distances, which were inspired by the traditional camel-back war parties of the Sahrawi tribes.

Algeria supports the Polisario " in its long-running desert war to oppose Moroccan control of the disputed area ".

Mauritania later surrendered its claim after fighting an unsuccessful war against the Polisario.

Morocco engaged in a war with the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, although a cease-fire came into effect in 1991, and the sovereignty of the territory remains under dispute.

* The Polisario Front has sought the independence of Western Sahara since 1975 and considered its guerilla war against Morocco as national liberation war ( like many foreign observers, countries and the African Union ), while Morocco considered it a secessionist movement.

The role of women in camps was enhanced by their shouldering of the main responsibility for the camps and government bureaucracy during the war years, as virtually the entire male population was enrolled in the Polisario army.

Leftist and socialist groups included the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the Basque Fatherland and Liberty, the Umkhonto We Sizwe, the Polisario Front, the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, while others were on the Far Right such as the Moro National Liberation Front.

In 2003, the Baker Plan was launched to replace the Settlement Plan, but while accepted by the Polisario and unanimously endorsed by the United Nations Security Council, it was rejected by Morocco.

Polisario and Algeria both deemed the advance of Morocco and Mauritania as a foreign invasion, while Morocco and Mauritania saw the fight against Polisario as a fight against a separatist group.

Ethnic unrest in the Mauritanian armed forces also strongly contributed to the ineffectiveness of the army: forcibly conscripted black Africans from the south of the country resisted getting involved in what they viewed as a northern intra-Arab dispute, and the Moors and Sahrawis of northern Mauritania often sympathized with Polisario, fearing the regional ambitions of Morocco, and Daddah's increasing dependence on Moroccan military support.

In support of Polisario, Algeria sent troops deep into the territory, but they eventually retreated after the Amgala battle in 1976.

On June 9, 1976 El-Ouali was killed by a shrapnel piece through the head returning from a major Polisario raid on the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, in which they bombarded the Presidential palace.

Responding to questions about slavery, the Polisario has acknowledged the survival, " to a limited extent, of certain practices related to antiquated thinking " and said it was " determined to combat and eradicate them whenever they emerge and no matter what shape they take.