La Güera
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La Güera
| |
|---|---|
 La Güera ruins, January 2003 | |
 Seal | |
  La Güera Location in Western Sahara  La Güera La Güera (Africa) | |
| Coordinates: 20°50′N 17°5′W / 20.833°N 17.083°W | |
| Non-self-governing territory | Western Sahara |
| Administering power |  Spain (de jure)[a] |
| Claimed by |  Morocco Sahrawi Republic |
| Controlled by |  Mauritania (de facto) |
| Founded | 30 November 1920 |
| Area | |
• Total | 87.8 km2 (33.9 sq mi) |
| Population (2004) | |
• Total | 3,726 |
| • Density | 42.4/km2 (110/sq mi) |
| Time zone | GMT |
La Güera (Arabic: الڭويرة al-Gūwayra; also known as La Agüera, Lagouira, El Gouera) is a ghost town on the Atlantic coast at the southern tip of Western Sahara, on the western side of the Ras Nouadhibou peninsula which is split in two by the Mauritania–Western Sahara border, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) west of Nouadhibou. It is also the name of a daira at the Sahrawi refugee camps in south-western Algeria.
It is the southernmost town of Western Sahara. La Güera is situated about 65 kilometres (40 mi) south of the Moroccan Wall at Guerguerat and is technically abandoned.
Etymology
[edit]The name's origin comes from the local tribes, who called the place "Güera" in Hassaniyya, meaning "steep crag by the sea".[6] In the Spanish language, Agüera is a ditch that carries rainwater to crops.[7]
History
[edit]Foundation and settlement
[edit]
La Güera came into existence in late 1920, when Spanish colonizer Francisco Bens (who had earlier taken possession of the Cape Juby region as a protectorate in 1916), after negotiating with tribal chiefs of the zone, established a fort and an air base on the western side of the Ras Nouadhibou peninsula, just a few kilometers away from the French settlement of Port-Étienne (now Nouadhibou) on the eastern side of the peninsula. (In the 1912 Convention of Madrid, Spain and France had agreed on a border between Mauritania and Spanish possessions that ran down the middle of the peninsula.)
In 1924, La Güera was incorporated into the Spanish colony of Río de Oro. During the short period (1920–1924) that the town was ruled as a separate part of the colony it released its own postage stamps.[8][9] The town was served by La Güera Airport until the 1970s.
Western Sahara War
[edit]In 1979, when Mauritania withdrew from the war, La Güera's population was estimated to be 816 inhabitants.[10]
Since the Alegal Madrid Tripartite Agreement of 1975, it remains territory in dispute. Before the long Sahrawi liberation war, the city was famous for its rich marine fauna: the Mediterranean monk seal as a symbol of the city, cetaceans and the special relationship of symbiosis in the art of fishing of these (dolphins) with fishermen belonging to the segment of the Sahrawi population most attached to Berber customs whose Amazigh language was still preserved, in the highest proportion of the territory, in addition to techniques and linguistic terms in common with Spanish fishermen from the Canary Islands and brothers of the same ethnic group Imraguen, from the Mauritanian side. The times when the Canary-Saharan fishing bank functioned at full capacity for the local people are now only memories of the yesterday.[11][12][13]
Ghost town
[edit]By 2002, it had been still abandoned and partially overblown by sand, inhabited only by a very few Imraguen fishermen[14][15] and guarded by a Mauritanian military outpost, despite this not being Mauritanian territory.[15]
In February 2026, Moroccan media outlets reported that the United Arab Emirates was planning to develop a destination resort at the abandoned site.[16]
Twin towns and sister cities
[edit]
- Águilas, Spain (since 18 July 2005)[17]
- Alaquàs, Spain (since 14 April 2004)[18]
- Almansa, Spain[19]
Castagneto Carducci, Italy[20]- Crevillent, Spain[21]
- El Puerto de Santa María, Spain (since 1993)[22]
- Fauglia, Italy (since 2009)[20]
- Gorliz, Spain[23]
- Guadix, Spain
- Iurreta, Spain[24]
- Leganés, Spain (since 17 August 2001)[25]
- Londa, Tuscany, Italy (since 2017)[26]
- Monteriggioni, Italy[20]
- Orio, Spain[27]
- San Marcello Piteglio, Italy[20]
- Santa Lucía de Tirajana, Spain (since 29 October 1986) – First twinning between a Sahrawi and a Spanish town[28]
- Valle de Yerri, Spain (since 29 September 2005)[29]
- Vitoria, Spain (since 1987)[30]
Notes
[edit]- ↑ In 1976, Spain withdrew from Western Sahara and informed the Secretary-General of the United Nations that it no longer considers itself responsible for the territory. Nonetheless, the criminal division of the Audiencia Nacional ruled in 2014 that Spain remains as Western Sahara's de jure administering power.[1] This position is shared by the United Nations, the African Union, and several legal jurists.[2][3][4] Additionally, Spain continues to manage Western Saharan airspace.[5]
References
[edit]- ↑ "AAN 256/2014 - ECLI:ES:AN:2014:256A" (PDF). 21 November 2014. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 July 2026. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
This Plenary agrees ... that Spain is still de jure, although not de facto, the Administering Power of the territory, and a such, until the end of the decolonization, has the obligations contained in articles 73 and 74 of the Charter of the United Nations ...
- ↑ United Nations Security Council Letter dated 29 January 2002 from the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, the Legal Counsel, addressed to the President of the Security Council S/2002/161 12 February 2002. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
- ↑ de Martín-Pinillos, Eduardo Trillo (2007). "Spain as Administering Power of Western Sahara". In Arts, Karin; Leite, Pedro Pinto (eds.). International Law and the Question of Western Sahara. Leiden: International Platform of Jurists for East Timor. ISBN 978-989-20-0820-2.
- ↑ Fernández-Molina, Irene; Ojeda-García, Raquel (2020). "Western Sahara as a Hybrid of a Parastate and a State-in-Exile: (Extra)territoriality and the Small Print of Sovereignty in a Context of Frozen Conflict". Nationalities Papers. 48: 83–99. doi:10.1017/nps.2019.34.
A number of jurists argue that Spain remains the de jure administering power of Western Sahara since the Madrid Accords violated Article 73 of the UN Charter and failed to be endorsed by the UN General Assembly. Such has been the position advocated by the African Union [...] since 2014.
- ↑ Carlos, Ruiz Miguel (2010). "Spain's Legal Obligations as Administering Power of Western Sahara". In Oliver, Michele; van Tonder, Delarey; Botha, Neville (eds.). Multilateralism and International Law with Western Sahara as a Case Study. Pretoria: University of South Africa. ISBN 978-1-86888-604-3.
As far as airspace is concerned, the airspace of the Western Sahara is included in the Spanish airspace, and more precisely in the Canary Islands Flight Information Region. This means that Morocco requires Spanish permission for flights in this territory.
- ↑ Blanco, Luis (2014). "Restos de la presencia colonial hispano-francesa en la península sahariana de Cabo Blanco. El fuerte nuevo de la Güera y la batterie de Port-Etienne". Revista Universitaria de Historia Militar (in Spanish). 3 (5): 123. doi:10.53351/ruhm.v3i5.40. ISSN 2254-6111. Retrieved 29 July 2026.
- ↑ "agüera". Diccionario de la lengua española (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 July 2026.
- ↑ Stamp Issuers – La Aguera Archived 2016-08-31 at the Wayback Machine Stampsofdistinction.com, 24 March 2008
- ↑ SELLOS DE COLONIAS ESPAÑOLAS LA AGÜERA Todocoleccion.net (in Spanish)
- ↑ "Sahara occidental: un conflicto de grandes repercusiones para España" (in Spanish). Domingodelpino.com (Leviatán magazine). 31 August 1985. Archived from the original on 25 September 2011. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
- ↑ Naranjo, José (15 March 2023). "Los nómadas mauritanos que navegan en español: "Arriba, arriba", "orza, timón"". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 6 April 2026.
- ↑ https://rasdargentina.wordpress. com/2016/08/01/la-guera-ciudad-fantasma-del-sahara/
- ↑ Naranjo, José (3 January 2013). "Los pescadores del desierto". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 6 April 2026.
- ↑ (in French) Abdallah Ben Ali, Guéguerre à Lagouira[permanent dead link], Maroc Hebdo International, issue 534, 22–28 November 2002
- 1 2 (in French) Redouane Ramdani, Enquête: Aux frontières du réel Archived 2013-12-12 at the Wayback Machine, TelQuel, issue 248, 18–24 November 2004
- ↑ "UAE plans tourism village in Morocco's La Güera 'ghost town.' Sahara coast set for major development". Fast Company Middle East. 24 February 2026. Archived from the original on 22 July 2026.
- ↑ "Águilas y la Güera se hermanan". Aguilasnoticias.com (in Spanish). 19 July 2005. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
- ↑ "Protocolo de cooperación entre el Ayuntamiento de Alaquàs y la daira la Güera. – Propuesta de aprobación" (PDF). alaquas.org (in Spanish). 14 April 2004. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 July 2026.
- ↑ "Veinte años de hermanamiento almanseño con Saint Mèdard". La Verdad (in Spanish). 16 May 2010. Archived from the original on 25 February 2025.
- 1 2 3 4 "Gemellaggi e Patti di Amicizia". Regione Toscana – Consiglio Regionale (in Italian). 27 March 2010.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)[permanent dead link] - ↑ "Composicion del Ayuntamiento". Ajuntamen de Crevillent (in Spanish). 28 April 2010. Archived from the original on 17 April 2026.
- ↑ "En 2013 se celebrará el 20 aniversario del hermanamiento con el pueblo saharaui". Andalucía Información (in Spanish). 9 October 2012. Archived from the original on 22 July 2026.
- ↑ Eva Molano (24 August 2008). "Hermanos lejanos". El Correo (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 23 July 2026.
- ↑ "Aytº de Iurreta (Bizkaia)" (in Spanish). Euskal Fondoa.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)[new archival link needed] - ↑ "La Güera, Sáhara". Leganes.org (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
- ↑ "Italian Londa municipality and its Sahrawi countrapart Legüera signs a twinning agreement". Sahara Press Service. 9 August 2017. Archived from the original on 10 August 2017.
- ↑ "Aytº de Orio (Gipuzkoa)" (in Spanish). Euskal Fondoa.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)[new archival link needed] - ↑ "Acta del pleno municipal sobre el Hermanamiento de Santa Lucía con la Güera. 1986". Lefrig.org (in Spanish).
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)[new archival link needed] - ↑ "Hermanamiento". Ayuntamiento del Valle de Yerri (in Spanish). 29 September 2005. Archived from the original on 15 April 2026.
- ↑ Edurne Palos (2 March 2008). "Un libro de fotografías conmemora el XX aniversario del hermanamiento de Vitoria con la Daira de la Güera". El Diario Vasco (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 23 July 2026.
External links
[edit]- Map of Ras Nouadhibou peninsula
- El Último Testigo La Agüera Memories of the son of a Spanish lieutenant in La Güera during the 1930s (in Spanish) Internet Archive copy
