Katana VentraIP

Ifni War

The Ifni War, sometimes called the Forgotten War in Spain (la Guerra Olvidada), was a series of armed incursions into Spanish West Africa by Moroccan insurgents that began in October 1957 and culminated with the abortive siege of Sidi Ifni.

The city of Sidi Ifni had been ceded to the Spanish Empire in 1860 at the end of the Hispano-Moroccan War. After Morocco achieved independence in 1956, it sought to claim Spain's remaining possessions in West Africa. Violent demonstrations against Spanish rule broke out in Ifni in April 1957, and in October Moroccan militias began converging near the territory. Moroccan forces attacked in November, forcing the Spanish to abandon most of the territory and retreat to a defensive perimeter around Ifni. Supplied by the Spanish Navy from the sea, the Spanish garrison was able to resist the siege, which lasted into June 1958. In Spanish Sahara, Moroccan units, now reorganised as the Moroccan Army of Liberation, engaged in heavy fighting with Spanish forces at El Aaiún and Edchera. By February 1958, a joint Spanish and French offensive had driven the Moroccans out of Spanish Sahara.


Hostilities ceased in April 1958 (although small skirmishes still occurred) with the Treaty of Angra de Cintra, signed by the Spanish and Moroccan governments, by which Cape Juby and most of the Ifni territory were transferred to Morocco. The city of Sidi Ifni remained in Spanish possession until 1969, when, under international pressure, it was relinquished to Morocco.

UN General Assembly
Resolution 2072 (XX)

16 December 1965

1398

A/RES/2072(XX) ([ Document])

Ifni and Spanish Sahara

Adopted

Aftermath[edit]

On April 2, 1958, the governments of Spain and Morocco signed the Treaty of Angra de Cintra which was named after the large bay in the area.


Morocco obtained the region of Tarfaya (Cape Juby), between the river Draa and the parallel 27°40′, and Ifni[11] (although legally Morocco only gained full control over the territory in 1969), excluding the colony of Spanish Sahara.[12]


Spain retained possession of Sidi Ifni until 1969, when, while under some international pressure (resolution 2072 of the United Nations from 1965), it returned the territory to Morocco. Spain kept control of Spanish Sahara until the 1975 Green March prompted it to sign the Madrid Accords with Morocco and Mauritania; it withdrew from the territory in 1976 and Western Sahara was partitioned between Morocco and Mauritania.[13]

Santamaría, Ramiro. Ifni-Sahara, la guerra ignorada ("Ifni-Sahara, the Ignored War") Dyrsa, Madrid, 1984. The history of the Ifni war told by a specialised journalist in the Western Sahara.

Casas de la Vega, Rafael. La última guerra de Africa ("The last war of Africa") Servicio de Publicaciones del Estado Mayor del Ejército, Madrid, 1985. Military analysis of the war by a Spanish general.

Mariñas Romero, Gerardo. "La Legión española en la guerra de Ifni-Sahara" ("The Spanish Legion in the Ifni-Sahara War"). Defensa, nº 117 (1988). Article about the intervention of the Spanish Legion in the Ifni war.

Belles Gasulla, José. Cabo Jubi-58. Memorias de un teniente de infantería en la campaña Ifni-Sahara ("Cape Jubi-58: Memoirs of an infantry lieutenant in the Ifni-Sahara campaign") Servicio de Publicaciones del Estado Mayor del Ejército, Madrid, 1990. Testimony of a Spanish officer.

Diego Aguirre, José Ramón. "Ifni, la última guerra colonial española" ("Ifni, the last Spanish colonial war"). Historia 16, nº 167 (1990). Analysis of the Ifni war with unpublished documents.

Diego Aguirre, José Ramón. La última guerra colonial de España: Ifni-Sahara, 1957–1958 ("The last colonial war of Spain: Ifni-Sahara, 1957–1958"). Algazara, Málaga, 1993.  978-8487999178 History of the Ifni war.

ISBN

Simón Contreras, Miguel. "Ifni y Sahara, hoy" ("Ifni and Sahara, today"). Ejército, nº 633 (1992). An officer of the Spanish Army revisits the battleground .

Tamburini, Francesco. "Ifni-Sahara, 1957–1958: una guerra coloniale dimenticata" ("Ifni-Sahara, 1957–1958: a forgotten colonial war"). Eserciti e Storia, no. 42, a. VII, July–August 2007.

List of Spanish colonial wars in Morocco

Green March

Sahrawi nationalism

(in Spanish)

The Corner of Sidi Ifni (El Rincón de Sidi Ifni)

(in Spanish)

Marcelino Sempere Doménech, El Ejército del Aire en la Guerra de Sidi Ifni, Universidad de Murcia

(In arabic)

The forgotten war