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Sand War

The Sand War (Arabic: حَرْبُ الرِّمَال, romanizedḤarb ar-Rimāl) was a border conflict between Algeria and Morocco fought from September 25 to October 30, 1963, although a formal peace treaty was not signed until February 20, 1964. It resulted largely from the Moroccan government's claim to portions of Algeria's Tindouf and Béchar provinces. The Sand War led to heightened tensions between the two countries for several decades.

Not to be confused with war sand or Sand Wars.

Full-blown confrontation began on September 25, 1963 once Moroccan forces occupied the border towns of Hassi Beida and Tindjoub, beginning a battle with Algerian forces for control over the towns. In the north, Algeria opened a front near Ich, while Morocco launched an offensive towards Tindouf in the south. Cuban troops arrived in Algeria to prepare for an offensive into eastern Morocco, prompting Morocco to prepare for a second offensive towards Tindouf. However, both attacks were suspended, and a ceasefire was officially declared on October 30, 1963. This ceasefire marked the first multinational peacekeeping mission conducted by the Organisation of African Unity. A formal peace treaty was eventually signed on February 20, 1964.

Armies and weapons

Algeria

The Algerian military, recently formed from the guerrilla ranks of the FLN's National Liberation Army (ALN), was still oriented towards asymmetric warfare, and had few heavy weapons.[26] Its logistics was also complicated by its vast array of largely obsolete weapons from a number of diverse sources, including France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, and the United States.[27] The Algerian army had ordered a large number of AMX-13 light tanks from France in 1962,[28] but, at the time of the fighting, only twelve were in service.[27] Ironically, at least four AMX-13s had also been donated by Morocco a year earlier.[28] The Soviet Union supplied Algeria with ten T-34 tanks, but these were equipped for clearing minefields and were delivered without turrets or armament.[28][27] The Algerian army also lacked trucks, aircraft, and jeeps.[27] In 1963, the size of the Algerian army was 48,000 troops and it had a military budget of $66 million.[29]

Morocco

Morocco's armed forces were smaller, but comparatively well-equipped and frequently took advantage of their superior firepower on the battlefield.[11][30] They possessed forty T-54 main battle tanks that they had purchased from the Soviet Union, twelve SU-100 tank destroyers, seventeen AMX-13s, and a fleet of gun-armed Panhard EBR armored cars.[27] Morocco also possessed modern strike aircraft, while Algeria did not.[28] In 1963, the size of the Moroccan army was 34,843 troops and it had a military budget of $94 million.[29]

Casualties

French sources reported Algerian casualties to be 60 dead and 250 wounded,[6] with later works giving a number of 300 Algerian dead.[8] Morocco officially reported to have suffered 39 dead.[7] Moroccan losses were probably lower than the Algerians' but are unconfirmed,[6] with later sources reporting 200 Moroccan dead.[8] About 57 Moroccans and 379 Algerians were taken prisoner.[7]

Aftermath

The Sand War laid the foundations for a lasting and often intensely hostile rivalry between Morocco and Algeria, exacerbated by the differences in political outlook between the conservative Moroccan monarchy and the revolutionary, Arab socialist Algerian military government.[11][54] In January 1969, Algerian President Houari Boumediene made a state visit to Morocco and signed a treaty of friendship with Hassan's government at Ifrane.[23] The following year the two leaders set up a commission to demarcate the border and examine prospects for joint efforts to mine iron ore in the disputed region.[23] Morocco finally abandoned all claims to Algerian territory in 1972 with the Accord of Ifrane, though Morocco refused to ratify the agreement until 1989.[55]


The governments of both Morocco and Algeria used the war to describe opposition movements as unpatriotic. The Moroccan UNFP and the Algerian-Berber FFS of Aït Ahmed both suffered as a result of this. In the case of UNFP, its leader, Mehdi Ben Barka, sided with Algeria, and was sentenced to death in absentia as a result. In Algeria, the armed rebellion of the FFS in Kabylie fizzled out, as commanders defected to join the national forces against Morocco.


The rivalry between Morocco and Algeria exemplified in the Sand War also influenced Algeria's policy regarding the conflict in Western Sahara, with Algeria backing an independence-minded Sahrawi guerrilla organization, the Polisario Front, partly to curb Moroccan expansionism in the wake of the attempt to annex Tindouf.[56]

List of modern conflicts in North Africa

Algeria–Morocco border

Algeria–Morocco relations

Bidwell, Robin (1998). Dictionary Of Modern Arab History. South Glamorgan: Kegan Paul International.  978-1138967670.

ISBN

Gleijeses, Piero (2002). Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959–1976. Chapel Hill, NC: . ISBN 978-0-807-82647-8.

University of North Carolina Press

Goldstein, Erik (1992). Wars and Peace Treaties: 1816 to 1991. Oxfordshire: Routledge Books.  978-0415078221.

ISBN

Farsoun, K.; Paul, J. (1976), "War in the Sahara: 1963", Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) Reports, 45 (45): 13–16,  3011767. Link requires subscription to Jstor.

JSTOR

Heggoy, A.A. (1970), "Colonial origins of the Algerian-Moroccan border conflict of October 1963", African Studies Review, 13 (1): 17–22, :10.2307/523680, JSTOR 523680, S2CID 145424137. Link requires subscription to Jstor.

doi

Ottaway, David (1970), Algeria: The Politics of a Socialist Revolution, Berkeley, California: , ISBN 9780520016552

University of California Press

Reyner, A.S. (1963), "Morocco's international boundaries: a factual background", Journal of Modern African Studies, 1 (3): 313–326, :10.1017/s0022278x00001725, JSTOR 158912, S2CID 154868086. Link requires subscription to Jstor.

doi

Torres-García, Ana (2013), "US diplomacy and the North African 'War of the Sands' (1963)", The Journal of North African Studies, 18 (2): 324–48, :10.1080/13629387.2013.767041, S2CID 144944978

doi

Touval, S. (1967), "The Organization of African Unity and African borders", International Organization, 21 (1): 102–127, :10.1017/s0020818300013151, JSTOR 2705705, S2CID 154805054. Link requires subscription to Jstor.

doi

Stephen O. Hughes, Morocco under King Hassan, Garnet & Ithaca Press, 2001,  0-8637-2285-7

ISBN

Zunes, Stephen (1995). "Algeria, The Maghreb Union, and the Western Sahara Stalemate." Arab Studies Quarterly, 17 (3): 23-36.  41858127.

JSTOR

Pennell, C.R. (2000). Morocco Since 1830. A History. New York: . ISBN 978-0-8147-6676-7.

New York University Press

Stora, B. (2004). . Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-3715-1.

Algeria 1830–2000. A Short History