Sidi Ifni (
Berber: ''Ifni'', ⵉⴼⵏⵉ, ar, سيدي إفني) is a city located on the west coast of
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, with a population of 20,051 people. The economic base of the city is fishing. It is located in
Guelmim-Oued Noun
Guelmim-Oued Noun ( ar, ڭلميم-وادي نون, gulmīm wādī nūn; ber, ⴳⵓⵍⵎⵉⵎ ⴰⵙⵉⴼ ⵏⵓⵏ, gulmim asif nun) is one of the twelve regions of Morocco. The southeastern part of the region is located in the disputed ...
region and
Sidi Ifni Province Sidi Ifni is a province in the Moroccan region of Guelmim-Oued Noun. It was created in 2009 from the southern part of Tiznit Province, and recorded a population of 115,691 in the 2014 Moroccan census
The 2014 Moroccan census The moroccan census ...
. Its inhabitants are the
Shilha from the
Ait Baamrane
An ait (, like ''eight'') or eyot () is a small island. It is especially used to refer to river islands found on the River Thames and its tributaries in England.
Aits are typically formed by the deposit of sediment in the water, which accum ...
ethnic group. In 2000, an important fishing port was completed, which serves as a base for fish exports.
History
The Ait Baamran ethnic group have long inhabited the small town and the surrounding region. The people worked in husbandry and traded with Europeans and northern Morocco, being intermediaries in the trans-Saharan trade.
In 1476, an enclave in the region of present-day Sidi Ifni was occupied by forces from the Spanish peninsula, which named its settlement there
Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña (literally ''Holy Cross of the Little Sea'') was a Spanish XV century settlement close to Akhfennir, in the Tarfaya Province, in Morocco.
History
Founded by the Canary Islands lord Diego de Herrera in 1478 as a tradi ...
. It remained in Spanish hands until 1524 when it was captured by
forces of the Saadi Sultanate.
Historically, Sidi Ifni is claimed to be the location of Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña, which had been long pursued by Spain, who built a small coastal fortress there in the 15th century. Although the existence of the fortress is widely documented, historians could not determine its exact location along the coast between
Agadir
Agadir ( ar, أݣادير, ʾagādīr; shi, ⴰⴳⴰⴷⵉⵔ) is a major city in Morocco, on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean near the foot of the Atlas Mountains, just north of the point where the Souss River flows into the ocean, and south ...
and
Tarfaya
Tarfaya ( ar, طرفاية - ''Ṭarfāya''; ber, ⵟⵔⴼⴰⵢⴰ) is a coastal Moroccan town, located at the level of Cape Juby, in western Morocco, on the Atlantic coast. It is located about 890 km southwest of the capital Rabat, and ...
. In 1860, following the
Spanish-Moroccan War, Morocco ceded Sidi Ifni and the territory of
Ifni
Ifni was a Spanish province on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, south of Agadir and across from the Canary Islands. It had a total area of , and a population of 51,517 in 1964. The main industry was fishing. The present-day Moroccan province in th ...
to Spain as a part of the
Treaty of Tangiers. During the period often termed the "Scramble for Africa", in 1884 Spain acquired what is now
Western Sahara
Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while the r ...
. Spain occupied Sidi Ifni and Western Sahara jointly, although the latter was known at the time as
Spanish Sahara
Spanish Sahara ( es, Sahara Español; ar, الصحراء الإسبانية, As-Sahrā'a Al-Isbānīyah), officially the Spanish Possessions in the Sahara from 1884 to 1958 then Province of the Sahara between 1958 and 1976, was the name used f ...
,
Río de Oro
Río de Oro (Spanish for "Gold River"; , ''wādī-að-ðahab'', often transliterated as ''Oued Edhahab'') was, with Saguia el-Hamra, one of the two territories that formed the Spanish province of Spanish Sahara after 1969; it had been taken as ...
or
Saguia el-Hamra
Saguia el-Hamra ( es, Saguía el Hamra, ar, الساقية الحمراء, lit=Red Canal, translit=al-Saqiyah al-Hamra'a) was, with Río de Oro, one of the two territories that formed the Spanish province of Spanish Sahara after 1969. Its name ...
.
Until 1952, the Ifni region had the status of a
protectorate
A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a State (polity), state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over m ...
. In that year, the region became part of
Spanish West Africa
Spanish West Africa (, AOE) was a grouping of Spanish colonies along the Atlantic coast of northwest Africa. It was formed in 1946 by joining the southern zone of the Spanish protectorate in Morocco, the colony of Ifni and the colony of Spanish S ...
, an entity that combined the colonies of Spanish Sahara and Cape Juby, with its capital located in Villa Bens— now called Tarfaya and currently in Morocco.
When Morocco obtained its independence from France, and then Spain, in 1956, it claimed the territory several times. The first was in August 1957, by stating that the French-Spanish treaty from 1912 had been abrogated. By late 1957 serious incidents had occurred at the border, starting the
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 I ...
, where
Ifni
Ifni was a Spanish province on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, south of Agadir and across from the Canary Islands. It had a total area of , and a population of 51,517 in 1964. The main industry was fishing. The present-day Moroccan province in th ...
garrisons were attacked by irregular troops led by Moroccan nationalists of the Istiqlal party, supported tacitly by the king. They called themselves the
Moroccan Liberation Army
The Army of Liberation ( ary, جيش التحرير, translit=Jish Etteḥrir; ber, Aserdas Uslelli, script=Latn) was an organization of various loosely united militias fighting for the independence of Morocco from the French protectorate in M ...
.
The Spanish Army retreated from most territory with the purpose of establishing a defensive line limited to Sidi Ifni and its surroundings, while the Moroccan Liberation Army took control of the abandoned territory. The war was never formally declared nor finished, but on 1 April 1958, Spain and Morocco signed the
Agreements of Angra de Cintra, by which
Cape Juby
Cape Juby (, trans. ''Raʾs Juby'', es, link=no, Cabo Juby) is a cape on the coast of southern Morocco, near the border with Western Sahara, directly east of the Canary Islands.
Its surrounding area, including the cities of Tarfaya and Tan-T ...
was ceded to Morocco in June 1958. The lost territories of Ifni region were never regained by Spain, but were integrated into Morocco. Once the defensive line at Sidi Ifni was settled, the city remained under Spanish rule as a province of Spain, comparable to the Spanish enclave cities, Ceuta and Melilla, on the northern coast of Morocco.
In 1969, under international pressure, Spain relinquished Sidi Ifni to Morocco.
Ifni protests
In June 2008 there were violent protests in Sidi Ifni. Media reports first cited eight protesters killed by police force, but this claim was later not substantiated.
On 30 May, dozens of unemployed workers had begun blocking the port to protest against not having been employed there. Unloading of fish was hindered. The following day, barriers were erected around the port. Several mediation efforts with local officials gave no result. On 6 June, around 500–600 people protested in the town and, moved by rumours that a police force from Tiznit or Agadir was to arrive, in the early hours of 7 June the protesters blocked several entrances to the town. A local official was severely harassed by the protesters. At 0630 a police force composed of some 8,000 agents entered the city, dispersed the protesters employing rubber bullets and reopened the port.
[Les dessous de l’affaire Al Jazeera]
/ref> Many protesters fled to the surrounding mountains. The police then entered houses in the neighbourhoods of Boulaalame and Lalla Meryem and started to arrest people violently. Abuse, harassment and theft took place. Around 182 people were detained and all but 10 were freed later that day. Twelve cases of torture leading to up to 30 days of temporal incapacity and around 35 cases of aggression or harassment were proven by the Moroccan Human Rights organisation OMDH.
On 7 June the Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...
-owned TV chain Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...
stated that eight to ten people had been killed during the police intervention. Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
in 2009 reported "They he Moroccan policealso conducted unauthorized raids on homes, confiscated property, verbally and sexually harassed people, and carried out arbitrary arrests and detentions." The relations between the Moroccan government and Al Jazeera seriously deteriorated[ and in July, Brahim Sbaalil, a spokesperson for the Islamist-leaning Centre Marocain des Droits Humain (CMDH) that had echoed the claims, was condemned to six months in prison for "spreading false accusations".
]
Unique Sea Cable Car System
To better utilize its ocean-shipping potential, Spanish authorities in the 1960s conceived and installed a unique ship-offloading system in the shallow waters of the Sidi Ifni port. Since the waters were too shallow to allow ships to reach shore, a concrete bastion was built at 550 meters offshore. It held a derrick and crane. Cargo and personnel were lifted from a ship, then moved to another station near the cliffs east of town, using self-propelled carts slung from large steel cables. The cables were supported by several pylons. This system ran for a few years (until Spain finally ceded the territory to Morocco), then fell into disrepair. The cables have disappeared, but the end stations and pylons are still visible.
Climate
Influenced by the cold Canary Current
The Canary Current is a wind-driven surface current that is part of the North Atlantic Gyre. This eastern boundary current branches south from the North Atlantic Current and flows southwest about as far as Senegal where it turns west and later jo ...
, Sidi Ifni has a hot desert climate
The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...
(Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
''BWh'') with mild to warm weather all year round, and very slight, erratic rainfall. This rain falls only during the winter months from November to April, and generally is significant only when the North Atlantic Oscillation
The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is a weather phenomenon over the North Atlantic Ocean of fluctuations in the difference of atmospheric pressure at sea level (SLP) between the Icelandic Low and the Azores High. Through fluctuations in the ...
is negative and drives the winter frontal storms (that normally remain well north of central Morocco) into the region.
Gallery
Image:Ifni04st.jpg,
Image:Palais-du-gouverneur.jpg, The governor's palace
Image:Playa de Lagzira en Sidi Ifni (Marruecos).jpg, Legzira beach
Image:Playa de Lagzira en Sidi Ifni (Marruecos) - 02.jpg, Legzira beach
Image:Ifni's Mosque.jpg, The mosque
Image:Paseo maritimo de Sidi Ifni (Marruecos).jpg, Sidi Ifni beach
Image:Essaouira arganier fruit (2) 1270.JPG, Argan
Image:Tafraoute-Tiznit col du Kerdous 113 1354.JPG, The fruits of Opuntia ficus-indica
Image:Prickly pear seller.jpg, The fruits of Opuntia ficus-indica
Image:Bicycle Trip.jpg, Beach in the sunset
References
External links
*
Ifni Friend's Association (Asociación de Amigos de Ifni)
*
The Corner of Sidi Ifni (El Rincón de Sidi Ifni)
{{Coord, 29, 23, N, 10, 10, W, region:MA_type:city, display=title
Municipalities of Morocco
Populated places in Sidi Ifni Province
Sidi Ifni
Sidi Ifni (Berber: ''Ifni'', ⵉⴼⵏⵉ, ar, سيدي إفني) is a city located on the west coast of Morocco, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, with a population of 20,051 people. The economic base of the city is fishing. It is located in ...
1860 establishments in the Spanish Empire