La Güera

Mauritania / Dahlat Nawadibu / Nouadhibou /
 fishing village, ghost town
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La Agüera, La Gouira, La Guera , La Gouera, Lagouira (the French and Moroccan notation)
"gwēra/ guera" (hassania) is the diminutive of "gara" = outstanding table mountains in a flat desert area (cit.: Wolfgang Creyaufmüller: Nomadenkultur in der Westsahara. Burgfried-Verlag 1983, p. 13)

Called "La Agüera" when it was a Spanish colonial possession, the settlement came into existence in 1920 when Spain established an air base on the western side of the Cap Blanc peninsula (today 'Ras Nouadhibou'), just a few miles away from the French Port Etienne (now Nouadhibou) on the eastern side of the same peninsula.
The boundary that seperates the peninsula into a western and eastern part was settled in a joint French-Spanish convention in 1900 to divide the area between the former Spanish Sahara and French West Africa. Until 1976 the western side was part of "Spanish Sahara".
old.wikimapia.org/#lat=20.9707368&lon=-17.0779037&a...

The battles of La Güera and Tichla took place from 10th to 22nd December 1975 when Mauritanian Army forces invaded the southern part of Western Sahara, the zone agreed to be annexed by Mauritania in the Madrid Accords. Mauritanian troops were confronted by Polisario Front guerrillas, forcing the Royal Moroccan Army to intervene on behalf of Mauritania. By the end of 1975, Mauritania controlled the southern half of the former Spanish colony of Rio de Oro.
Background: By 6th November 1975, the Spanish government had evacuated the Spanish civilian population from La Güera during a 48-hour operation, part of the broader "Operation Swallow". Nineteen corpses from the La Güera cemetery were exhumed and embarked on the Ciudad de Huesca boat. A few hours later, POLISARIO flags waved on the main buildings of La Güera, after dozens of Sahrawi guerrilla fighters captured it and set up their own administration, and the town became cut off from air, sea and land. (cit.: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_La_G%C3%BCera_and_Tich... )

The settlement was administered by Mauritania from 1976 to 1979; from 1979 till 2002 there it should have been a construction activity by Morocco (the airfield is still visible). But a Mauritanian military outpost was accepted by Morocco, possibly because of the location south of the Moroccan border wall the settlement was abandoned by Morocco and partially overblown with sand. There are also no POLISARIO forces. As annexed in the wikipedia-article, only a few Imraguen fishermen and the Mauritanian military outpost on the western side of the peninsula pretendedly remain in the settlement, despite not being formally Mauritanian territory.

According to wikipedia today Mauritania controls the area including the former town and airport.

Your neutral(!) report and pictures about the substantive, present-day situation please add at this position! But please(!) add your political representations only in the comment. If not, this article would get out of hand again.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagouira
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   20°49'54"N   17°5'27"W

Comments

  • A great definition
  • Since the incident between Morocco and the Polisario front on November 13th, is it possible to travel down the N1, through to La Güera? Is it possible to cross from La Güera to Nouadhibou?
This article was last modified 2 years ago