Laayoune

Laayoune is the capital of the Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra region administered by Morocco, but it is still under the supervision of MINURSO, a UN mission.

The town is located south of the dry river of Saguia el-Hamra, where the old lower town built by Spanish colonists is located. The St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral was constructed during the Spanish period and is still active with a few Catholic missionaries.

History

Laayoune or El Aaiún are respectively the French and Spanish transliterations of one of the possible Romanized Hassaniya Arabic names for the city: Layoun, which could mean "the springs", in reference to the oases that furnish the town's water supply.

The city was founded by the Spanish captain Antonio de Oro in 1938 as a small military outpost but quickly became the Spanish Sahara's administrative and political center. The location was chosen for two reasons: the presence of water and the strategic military position offered. Its placement on the banks of the Saguia el-Hamra river enabled good communication with the harbors of Tarfaya and Boujdour. Due to the discovery of vast phosphate deposits at the Bou Craa site, the city experienced a burst of economic growth during the 1940s with the phosphate industry.

The town was the scene of the Zemla Intifada that occurred on June 17, 1970, culminating in a massacre with deaths ranging from 2 to 11 people and hundreds injured.

After the Spanish withdrew in 1975, Laayoune, along with much of the rest of the Western Sahara, was annexed by Morocco. Since then, large numbers of Moroccans have moved to the city and now outnumber the indigenous Sahrawis, who have gradually given up their traditional nomadic lifestyles.

The city has continued to develop rapidly and benefits from a desalination plant. The city's rate of urbanization continues to outpace that of Morocco, though on most indicators of human development it lags behind southern Morocco.