27°09′13″N 13°12′12″W / 27.1536°N 13.2033°W / 27.1536; -13.2033

Part of a series on the
Western Sahara conflict
Background
Spanish Sahara Greater Morocco Greater Mauritania Moroccan Army of Liberation Movement for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Wadi el Dhahab Polisario Front Sahrawi National Union Party Madrid Accords Partition agreement
Regions
Saguia el-Hamra Río de Oro Southern Provinces Tiris al-Gharbiyya Free Zone
Politics
Annexation of Western Sahara Political status of Western Sahara Foreign relations of Morocco Makhzen Politics of the SADR Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs
Clashes
Ifni War Zemla Intifada Western Sahara War First Intifada Independence Intifada Gdeim Izik Arab Spring protests 2020–present clashes Timeline
Issues
Refugees camps Sahrawi nationality Green March Moroccan settlers Moroccan Wall Human rights
Peace process
UN resolutions UN visiting mission UN referendum mission ICJ Advisory Opinion Settlement Plan Houston Agreement Baker Plan Manhasset negotiations Autonomy Proposal
v t e

Saguia el-Hamra (Spanish: Saguía el Hamra, Arabic: الساقية الحمراء, romanized: al-Saqiyah al-Hamra'a, lit. 'Red Canal') was, with Río de Oro, one of the two territories that formed the Spanish province of Spanish Sahara after 1969. Its name comes from a waterway that goes through the capital. The wadi is inhabited by the Oulad Tidrarin Sahrawi tribe.

Occupying the northern part of Western Sahara, it lay between the 26th parallel north and 27°50'N. The city of Cape Bojador served to divide the regions. Its colonial capital was El Aaiún (Laâyoune),^[1] and it also included the city of Smara.

The territory takes its name from an intermittent river, the Saguia el-Hamra, the route of which runs west from south of El Farsia to reach the Atlantic at Laayoune.

The area is roughly 82,000 km (51,000 mi), making it approximately a third of the entire Western Sahara.^[2]