Dakhla is the capital of the Moroccan administrative region Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab. It has a population of 106,277 and is on a narrow peninsula of the Atlantic Coast, the Río de Oro Peninsula. The city was occupied by Spain from the late 19th century to 1975.
About Dakhla, Western Sahara in brief
Dakhla is the capital of the Moroccan administrative region Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab. It has a population of 106,277 and is on a narrow peninsula of the Atlantic Coast, the Río de Oro Peninsula, about 550 kilometres south of Laayoune. The Spanish interest in the desert coast of Western Africa’s Sahara arose as the result of fishing carried out from the nearby Canary Islands by Spanish fishers and as a result of the Barbary pirates menace. The area has been inhabited by Berbers since ancient times. Oulad Dlim is an Arab tribe of Himyari from Yemen that settled in the Sahara in the twelfth century. The Spaniards established whaling stations with some cod fishing and trading. In 1884, the settlement was promoted by the Spanish Society of Africanists and funded by the government of Canovas del Castillo. During the colonial period, Spanish authorities built a military fortress and a modern Catholic church. A prison camp also existed at the fort during the Spanish Civil War at which writers such as Pedro García Cabrera were imprisoned.
In 1975, Spain relinquished a joint administration between Morocco and Mauritania. Mauritania annexed the southern portion of Western Sahara as Tiris al-Gharbiyya. In 2006, most UN member states refused to recognise the Moroccan sovereignty in the area, but have recently agreed to recognise it as a UN-sponsored ceasefire. The airport is used as a civilian airport and can accommodate a Boeing 737 or smaller aircraft. The passenger terminal covers 670 m2 and is capable of handling up to 55,000 passengers per year. The city was occupied by Spain from the late 19th century to 1975, when then power was then Morocco was then in power. It was from the city that on January 12, 1976, General Gomez de Salazar became the last Spanish soldier to depart what until that moment had been the colony of Spanish Sahara.
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This page is based on the article Dakhla, Western Sahara published in Wikipedia (as of Jan. 01, 2021) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
