El Aaiún

El-Aaiún or Laâyoune ( Arabic: العيون, transliterated al-`ayūn), is the unofficial capital of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony now mostly controlled and occupied by Morocco. El-Aaiún is located at 27°9'13" North, 13°12'12" West (27.153611, -13.203333). [1]

The city has a population of 183,691 ( 2004 census) and is the largest city in Western Sahara. Most of its inhabitants are Moroccan settlers who moved (or were moved) into the area after Morocco invaded Western Sahara in 1975, but a significant minority are native Sahrawis.

"El Aaiún" is the transliteration of the Arabic name used as the Spanish name for the city, and was the only one used until the Moroccan invasion of Western Sahara. "Laâyoune" is a French transliteration used in Moroccan literature. The former is the preferred nomenclature of the Sahrawis. The Arabic name means "the springs" (or "the eyes").

A United Nations mission in the city, MINURSO, administers the ceasefire settlement of 1991 between Morocco and the Polisario Front, which has fought the Moroccan occupation since it began and claims Western Sahara as an independent state.

In the spring of 2005 Sahrawi demonstrations demanding independence and the release of political prisoners rocked the city, and a trend towards opening up the closed territory seems to have been broken off, with several expulsions of foreign journalists and human rights delegations.

In the area south of Tindouf, Algeria, there is a Sahrawi refugee camp named El-Aaiun, after this city.