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Witness History: The Green March: Moroccans take over the Sahara

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The Green March: Moroccans take over the Sahara

16/01/2024 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, The Green March: Moroccans take over the Sahara

In 1975, unarmed Moroccans faced off against gun-carrying Spanish soldiers

In 1975, hundreds of thousands of Moroccans faced off against armed Spanish soldiers in a bid to control the Sahara.

On 6 November 1975, tens of thousands of Moroccans poured into Spanish Sahara in a bid to claim it for their own.

They danced, waved flags and played music as they faced off, unarmed, against gun-carrying Spanish soldiers.

The so-called Green March led to a diplomatic victory for Morocco's King Hassan, but sparked a guerrilla war and decades of instability.

In 2013, TV cameraman Seddik Maaninou and North Africa expert Francis Gillies told Simon Watts about that momentous protest.

(Photo: Protestors on the Green March. Credit: Jacques Haillot/Apis/Sygma/Sygma/Getty Images)

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