Wikipedia:WikiProject Western Sahara

The WikiProject Western Sahara has been formed to better organize information and edits in articles related to Western Sahara and the related government in exile, the (Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic). It is a collaboration about the region Western Sahara, the government the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, and the native population of the Sahara, the Sahrawis. It was initiated on December 30, 2005, by Justin (koavf). If you would like to help, please inquire on the talk page and see the to-do list there.

For more information on WikiProjects, please see WikiProjects and WikiProject best practices.

Scope
Western Sahara is an obscure region, and needs to have the attention that other countries get by virtue of their population and importance in geopolitics. To that end, this project has the following goals:
 * Standardize terminology related to Western Sahara/SADR.
 * Enforce neutrality on issues related to the conflict.
 * Explain the established facts on the region and conflict: cultural, historical, and political.
 * Bring to light the newest information on developments in the territory and the refugee camps in Tindouf.

Structure
There is no hierarchical structure to the project; please edit articles as you see fit. The to-do list and general goals are below. Please add any changes that you find germane to this page. If you would like guidance, please post on my Talk page.

Hierarchy definition
This is neither strictly under the WikiProject Countries, nor the WikiProject Unrecognized countries, as the SADR is recognized by dozens of governments.

Goals

 * Standardize terminology related to Western Sahara/SADR Ensure that pages use the terms "Western Sahara", "Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic", "Sahrawi", and "Polisario" correctly.
 * "Western Sahara" is a territory in Africa. It was formerly known as "Spanish Sahara", and is made up of Río de Oro and Saguia el-Hamra. This region is known as the Southern Provinces in Moroccan literature; see also Prefectures and provinces of Morocco. The Kingdom of Morocco does not administer the entirety of the territory; the remainder is known to Polisario and sympathizers as the Free Zone. Please not that many sources will use the term "Western Sahara" to refer to the government the "Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic."
 * "Sahrawi (Saharawi) Arab Democratic Republic" is a government in exile which claims the entirety of Western Sahara, but only administers what it refers to as the Free Zone. Their headquarters are in Tindouf, Bir Lehlou and Tifariti (former and actual temporary capitals). All members of the SADR are also members of the Polisario Front.
 * "Sahrawi" (alternately spelled many ways), an Arabic term meaning literally "inhabitant of the Sahara" is a population. Of mixed Arab and Berber descent, the claim descent from the Beni Hassan, a Yemeni tribe. They are divided into several tribal sub-groups and inter-tribal warfare was periodic until the 20th century. The Polisario has worked on nation building, that is, creating a common sense of ethnic identity, in seeking to move common identity from tribe to non-tribal nationalism, but tribalism is still present and some Sahrawis emphasize their tribal identity more than others.
 * "Polisario (Front)" is a nationalist group that was created to expel Spanish colonizers using guerrilla warfare. When Spain abandoned the territory in 1976, the Polisario focused their attention on Mauritanian and Moroccan forces attempting to partition and annex the territory. They have not conducted organized acts of violence since the United Nations mediated a cease-fire in 1991. Not all members of Polisario are members of the SADR.
 * Enforce neutrality on issues related to the conflict Issues relating to sovereignty can be difficult to discuss in objective terms. In many such conflicts, there is an intersection of several issues related to, and including, racism, irredentism, separatism, colonization, decolonization, national pride, patriotism, nationalism, and simple political bias. As such, make sure that all your edits and all edits that you see other users make regarding Western Sahara are neutral.
 * Explain the established facts on the region and conflict: cultural, historical, and political Western Sahara is an obscure topic in the English-speaking world, and it's difficult to find information about the conflict, and to understand or integrate this information. Some facts are not in dispute, and it is generally best to add these facts to the relevant articles on Wikipedia. For facts that are not in dispute, it is not necessary to habitual present all possible points-of-view on how they relate to all established facts, but it is desirable to represent mainstream opinions in the interest of neutrality.
 * Bring to light the newest information on developments in the territory and the refugee camps in Tindouf Please always remember to cite your sources. If you have Internet links, this is especially easy. If you can't integrate your source into the article itself, at the very least, add an explanation to the Talk page.

Active members
To join WikiProject Western Sahara, edit this section and add the Wikitext   with your areas of interest to the bottom of the following list of members. Members should also place member identification on their user page.
 * 1) Justin (koavf)
 * 2)  00:17:09, 8 July 2020 (UTC)
 * 3)  17:12:19, 15 January 2022 (UTC)
 * 4)  13:05:14, 5 August 2022 (UTC)

Former members
Thank you for your help! Please move your username back to the active list when you can participate again.
 * 15:49:19, 3 May 2019 (UTC)

Member identification
Members of WikiProject Western Sahara should place one of the following lines of Wikitext on their user page to add it to .

For other Western Sahara user templates see .

Projects

 * Maps
 * If anyone has maps that they can scan or create to add to articles, that would be most helpful.
 * Pictures
 * Please add pictures to articles as you find them. If someone has the time or inclination, it would be excellent to add pictures from NASA, as they are unlicensed.
 * Re-directs
 * Since many people, places, and things related to Western Sahara were originally named in Arabic, there will be differences in transliteration. If you can assist, please make re-directs that go to the proper article. For instance, the following articles:
 * SaHarāwī
 * SaHarāwīs
 * SaHrāwī
 * SaHrāwīs
 * Saharaoui
 * Saharaouis
 * Saharoui
 * Saharouis
 * Saharui
 * Saharuis
 * Sahraoui
 * Sahraouis
 * Sahraui
 * Sahrauis
 * Sahrawis
 * all re-direct to Sahrawi.

Image requests
In addition to posting your image requests here, on the talk page(s) of the subject(s), and on the Wikimedia Commons (Commons:Commons:Picture requests), please also post them at es:Wikipedia:Imágenes solicitadas on the Spanish Wikipedia. If you do not know Spanish, you can ask someone at es:Wikipedia:Embajadas to help you. And in addition please post them at fr:Wikipédia:Atelier photographique on the French Wikipedia. If you do not know French, you can ask someone at fr:Wikipédia:Bistro_des_non-francophones/en to help you.

Tasks
Here are the sorts of tasks that you can do to assist with this project. Please choose any of the following, based on your level of expertise and commitment. Others may be added as they become contentious, or are about breaking news events.
 * Create: These are articles germane to the situation in Western Sahara that have yet to be created. Even if you know very little about the topic, start up one - something is better than nothing.
 * Expand: This is for short articles (called "stubs") that need more info. Add text, pictures, links, or anything else that can enhance a readers' knowledge of the subject. There is a category for such articles.
 * Cleanup: Sometimes, articles are made in haste, and they contain spelling, grammatical, mathematical, and/or factual errors. These articles have a good start, but they need more structure to the information presented.
 * Disputes: Such articles have information that is a matter of debate. You can help out by offering solutions and alternatives, re-wording controversial passages, or taking part in proper votes.
 * Cite: When information is suspect, an editor will request that someone else cite the source for the claim made. If you can provide one, please insert a link, or reference to a book or other external, verifiable source. Keep in mind that something unverifiable (e.g. original research) is not satisfactory.
 * Votes: A vote can be requested for several reasons: articles, templates, and categories, may need to be renamed, merged, or deleted. Voice your opinion on controversial matters by taking part in votes.
 * Merge: If two articles have similar material, it may be appropriate to combine the two. If you are capable of combining two separate articles, please consult the relevant talk pages to see what the consensus is, or simply add your two cents there.
 * Update: Some articles will necessarily need to be updated constantly, or there may be breaking news regarding a certain topic. If you have access to verifiable information, please add it to out-of-date articles, and don't forget to cite your sources, at least by mentioning them on the talk page or your edit summary if nothing else.
 * Images: For (almost) any article that describes a person or place, a picture is helpful. Try to find sources that are copyright-free (such as NASA) for quick, easy repositories for images. In the case of locations, consider creating a map.
 * Wikify: Articles at this stage of development need very little assistance, and one thing that you can do is go to the article and create links to all of the other topics that another user may find interesting. This can mean adding links to the text within an article, creating or expanding a "See also" or "External links" list at the end of the article. Keep in mind that it is generally not desirable to create a link for every year or century mentioned in an article.
 * Critique: If an article becomes well-written enough that it could be a featured article, please read it over with a critical eye, looking for any objectionable passages, claims that are not substantiated, or any omissions that could be expanded. If you can't do this peer review yourself, please request that someone else does.
 * Review: This is the last step toward becoming a featured article. Please make a request for an article to be featured on the Main Page, and join in the discussion about other candidates.
 * Translate: If you have any skills at translation, please either integrate information from other language Wikipedias into this one, or take information from this Wikipedia, and put in into others. Particularly useful Wikipedias will probably be the Arabic, French, and Spanish ones. Also, please take articles written here and translate them into simple English for that Wikipedia.
 * Watch: There are certain articles that need to be watched since they are most important to other users understanding the conflict in Western Sahara, and bias is easily introduced into these. Please add the following pages to your Watchlist:
 * Western Sahara
 * Morocco
 * Prefectures and provinces of Morocco
 * Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
 * On-going tasks: Even when all of this is done, there is always something to add or edit on Wikipedia. Such on-going tasks are listed above.

The following is the to-do table. Feel free to add it to your user page by putting in the following code:

Recognized content
Some articles on Western Sahara are more vital to an understanding of the region than others. Some are currently better written than others. The assessment portion of the WikiProject aims to give rankings to the relative importance and quality of Western Sahara-related articles.

See the assessment.

Version 1.0 Editorial Team release version selections

 * Arabic language
 * El Aaiún
 * Western Sahara

Adopt an article
Similar to the Collaboration of the week, but on a smaller scale, you might want to "adopt" an article. This would involve doing the research, writing, and picture-taking (if possible) for either a non-existent article or a stub. Of course, everyone else can still edit an adopted article, and you can work on other things too, but the idea is to find a focus for a while, to try and build up the number of quality articles the Project has produced.

Articles you'd like to see written (please place newest articles at the top):
 * (Name) (Date) - (Explanation) Adopted by (User) on (Date)

Articles:

 * .eh
 * 1957 invasion of Spanish Sahara
 * Abdelkader Taleb Oumar
 * Abdul Abdallah Mohammed III Saadi
 * African Economic Community
 * African Union
 * Ain Ben Tili
 * Ali Bourequat
 * Ali Salem Tamek
 * Aminatou Haidar
 * Arab
 * Arab League
 * Arab Maghreb Union
 * Arab Region
 * Arab world
 * Arabic language
 * Auserd
 * Baker Plan
 * Beni Hassan
 * Berber
 * Berber languages
 * Bir Gandus
 * Bir Lehlou
 * Bou Craa
 * Boujdour
 * Boutros Boutros-Ghali
 * Cape Bojador
 * Cape Juby
 * Chadli Bendjedid
 * Coat of Arms of Western Sahara
 * Communications in Western Sahara
 * Culture of Western Sahara
 * Dakhla, Western Sahara
 * Democratic Republic
 * Demographics of Morocco
 * Demographics of Western Sahara
 * Dirham
 * Disappeared
 * Djema'a
 * Driss Basri
 * Economy of Morocco
 * Economy of Western Sahara
 * El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed
 * El Aiun
 * Elections in Morocco
 * Elections in Western Sahara
 * February 27
 * Flag of Western Sahara
 * Forced disappearance
 * Foreign relations of Morocco
 * Foreign relations of Western Sahara
 * Free Zone (region)
 * Front Polisario Khat al-Shahid
 * Geography of Morocco
 * Geography of Western Sahara
 * Greater Morocco
 * Green March
 * Guelmim
 * Guelta Zemmur
 * Harakat Tahrir
 * Hassan II of Morocco
 * Hassaniya
 * History of Morocco
 * History of Western Sahara
 * History of republicanism in Morocco
 * Houari Boumédienne
 * Houston Agreement
 * Human rights in Western Sahara
 * Ifni
 * Independence Intifada
 * Independence Party (Morocco)
 * International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on Western Sahara
 * Intifada
 * James Baker
 * Javier Pérez de Cuéllar
 * John Mercer
 * Kerr-McGee
 * King Hassan II of Morocco
 * Kofi Annan
 * Lagouira
 * Lamtuna
 * Lemseid
 * List of Western Sahara-related topics
 * List of cities in Moroco
 * List of cities in Western Sahara
 * List of conflicts in the Maghreb
 * List of political parties in Morocco
 * List of political parties in Western Sahara
 * List of stateless ethnic groups
 * MINURSO
 * Ma al-'Aynayn
 * Madrid Accords
 * Maghreb
 * Maghreb Arab Union
 * Maghreb toponymy
 * Mahfoud Ali Beiba
 * Makhzen
 * Malika Oufkir
 * Mashreq
 * Mehdi Ben Barka
 * Michèle Fitoussi
 * Mohamed Abdelaziz
 * Mohamed Elmoutaoikil
 * Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla
 * Mohamed Oufkir
 * Mohammed Daddach
 * Mohammed VI of Morocco
 * Moktar Ould Daddah
 * Moors
 * Moroccan Wall
 * Moroccan dirham
 * Morocco
 * Movement for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Wadi el Dhahab
 * Muhammad Bassiri
 * Music of Western Sahara
 * Mustafa Ould Salek
 * North Africa
 * Northwest Africa
 * Nouadhibou
 * Operation Felix
 * Oulad Bou Sbaa
 * Oulad Delim
 * Pan-Africanism
 * Pan-Arab colors
 * Partido de Unión Nacional Saharaui
 * Polisario Front
 * Political parties in Western Sahara
 * Politics of Western Sahara
 * President of Western Sahara
 * Prime Minister of Western Sahara
 * Prefectures and provinces of Morocco
 * Regions of the Middle East
 * Reguibat
 * Río de Oro
 * Saguia el-Hamra
 * Sahabzada Yaqub Khan
 * Sahara
 * Sahara (disambiguation)
 * Saharan
 * Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic
 * Sahraoui Scout Association
 * Sahrauis: The Music of the Western Sahara
 * Sahrawi
 * Sahrawi National Union Party
 * Sand war
 * Scramble for Africa
 * Self-determination
 * Settlement Plan
 * Shaikh
 * Simeon Aké
 * Smara
 * Southern Provinces
 * Spanish Empire
 * Spanish language
 * Spanish Morocco
 * Spanish Sahara
 * Spanish Southern Morocco
 * Spanish West Africa
 * Starry Nights in Western Sahara
 * Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail
 * Tajakant
 * Tamazgha
 * Tan-Tan
 * Tarfaya
 * Tarfaya Strip
 * Tazmamart
 * Tekna
 * Terra nullius
 * Tidinit
 * Tifariti
 * Tindouf
 * Tiris al-Gharbiyya
 * Tiznit
 * Trans-Saharan trade
 * Transportation in Western Sahara
 * Tripartite Agreement (1975) (redirect to the Madrid Accords)
 * Tropas Nómadas
 * UGTSARIO
 * UJSARIO
 * UNMS
 * United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories
 * United Nations visiting mission to Spanish Sahara
 * Western Sahara Authority
 * Wilayah
 * William Eagelton
 * Xalam
 * Years of Lead
 * Zemla Intifada
 * Zouérat

New Wikipedia articles related to Western Sahara
Please feel free to list your new Western Sahara-related articles here (newer articles at the top, please). Any new articles that have an interesting or unusual fact in them should be suggested for the Did you know? box on the Main Wikipedia page. DYN has a 72 hr. time limit from the creation of the article.

Project

 * - Please see WikiProject Africa for more information on the template, as well as assessment information.

Stub

 * WesternSahara-stub
 * Africa-stub
 * AfricaN-geo-stub
 * Template:Morocco-geo-stub

Userboxes

 * User WikiProject Western Sahara


 * WSWP-Member


 * WSWP-Member2


 * WSWP-Member3


 * Template:User Western Sahara
 * Userboxes/Location/Africa

Other

 * SADR

🇪🇭
 * ESH
 * African Union
 * Politics of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

Images

 * Image:Africa-countries-western.png
 * Image:Arab world.png
 * Image:El Aaiún 13.22342W 27.14668N.png
 * Image:Flag of Western Sahara.svg
 * Image:GreaterMiddleEast2.png
 * Image:Laayoune-miltary checkpoint.jpg
 * Image:LocationWesternSahara.png
 * Image:Map-Hispanophone World.png
 * Image:UMA.PNG
 * Image:Wi-map.png

Lists

 * List of Western Sahara-related topics
 * List of active autonomist and secessionist movements
 * List of cities in Morocco
 * List of cities in Western Sahara
 * List of conflicts in North Africa
 * List of disputed or occupied territories
 * List of political parties in Western Sahara
 * List of stateless ethnic groups
 * United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories

Portals

 * Portal:Western Sahara
 * Portal:Africa
 * Portal:Berbers
 * Portal:Geography/Africa
 * Portal:Morocco

Ongoing Wikipedia surveys

 * Requested moves:
 * Requests for Comments:

Votes for deletion

 * Votes for deletion (Article deletion):
 * Votes for undelete (Article undeletion}:
 * Templates for deletion:
 * Categories for deletion:
 * Images for deletion:
 * Redirects for deletion:

WikiProject Deletion sorting
WikiProject Deletion sorting is a new effort that attempts to classify various articles nominated for votes for deletion by major categories. The Western Sahara-related articles at VFD are listed at WikiProject Deletion sorting/Western Sahara.

Archives

 * #1

Parentage

 * WikiProject Countries
 * WikiProject Africa

Descendant WikiProjects
No descendant WikiProjects have been defined.

Related WikiProjects

 * WikiProject Anti-war - the Polisario have sought diplomatic means to establish their state, and have kept a cease-fire for the past 15 years.
 * WikiProject Arab-Israeli conflict - Sahrawis are Arabs, and the situation of the Palestinians is seen by the Polisario Front to parallel theirs.
 * WikiProject International law - Western Sahara is a unique case of decolonization.
 * WikiProject Limited recognition

Related Wikiportals

 * Portal:Western Sahara
 * Portal:Africa
 * Portal:Berbers
 * Portal:Geography/Africa
 * Portal:Morocco

Related Collaborations
Wikiproject Countering systemic bias

Related Regional notice boards
Africa-related regional notice board

Related pages in English Sister projects

 * Western Sahara
 * Western Sahara
 * Western Sahara
 * Western Sahara
 * Western Sahara
 * Western Sahara
 * Wikiversity:Western Sahara
 * Western Sahara
 * Western Sahara

Sister Project Searches

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 * Sahara&go=Go Wikiquote search
 * Sahara Google Wikiquote search]
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