Sidi Ifni

The Ait Baamran ethnic group have long inhabited the small town and the region surrounding it. They worked in husbandry and traded with Europeans and northern Morocco, being intermediaries in the trans-Saharan trade.[1]

In 1476, an enclave in the region of present-day Sidi Ifni was occupied by Spain, which named its settlement there Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña. It remained in Spanish hands until 1524 when it was captured by Saadian rulers.

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 and Tarfaya. In 1860, following the Spanish-Moroccan War, Morocco ceded Sidi Ifni and the territory of Ifni 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. Spain occupied Sidi Ifni and Western Sahara jointly, although the latter was known at the time as Spanish Sahara, Río de Oro or Saguia el-Hamra.

Until 1952, the Ifni region had the status of a protectorate. In that year, the region became part of Spanish West Africa (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 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, where Ifni 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 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 April 1,1958 Spain and Morocco signed the Agreements of Angra de Cintra, by which Cape Juby was turned over 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, Cueta and Melilla, on the northern coast of Morocco.

In 1969, under international pressure, Spain relinquished Sidi Ifni to Morocco.

In June 2008, violent protests took place in Sidi Ifni; according to the first media reports eight people were killed by police forces, but this claim was later not substantiated.

On May 30, dozens of unemployed workers started to block 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 June 6, 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 June 7 several entrances to the town were blocked by protesters. A local official was severely harassed by the protesters. At 6:30 a.m. on the same day, a police force composed of some 8,000 agents entered the city, dispersed the protesters employing rubber bullets and reopened the port.[2] Many of the 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.[3]

On June 7, the Qatar-owned TV chain Al Jazeera stated that between eight and 10 people had been killed during the police intervention. Amnesty International's 2009 report reads that, "They [the Moroccan police] also conducted unauthorized raids on homes, confiscated property, verbally and sexually harassed people, and carried out arbitrary arrests and detentions."[4] The relations between the Moroccan government and Al Jazeera seriously deteriorated[2] 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".[5]

Influenced by the cold Canary Current, Sidi Ifni has a hot desert climate (Köppen 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 is negative and drives the winter frontal storms that are normally well north of central Morocco into the region.

Panoramic view of the beach

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  The governor's palace
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  Legzira beach
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  Legzira beach
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  The mosque
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  Sidi Ifni beach
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  Argan
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  The fruits of Opuntia ficus-indica
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  The fruits of Opuntia ficus-indica
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  Beach in the sunset

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Sidi Ifni.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sidi Ifni.

• (in Spanish) Ifni Friend's Association (Asociación de Amigos de Ifni)
• (in Spanish) The Corner of Sidi Ifni (El Rincón de Sidi Ifni)
• Lexicorient