Dakhla, Oued Ed-Dahab Province, Western Sahara

History | Economy | Oil | Oyster industry

🇪🇭 Dakhla (الداخلة, ⴷⴷⴰⵅⵍⴰ) is a city in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, currently occupied by Morocco. It is the capital of the claimed Moroccan administrative region Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab. It is on a narrow peninsula of the Atlantic Coast, the Río de Oro Peninsula, about 550 km (340 mi) south of Laayoune.

History The area has been inhabited by Berbers since ancient times. Oulad Dlim is an Arab tribe of Himyari from Yemen that settled in the Sahara in the twelfth century. Dakhla was expanded by Spanish settlers during the expansion of their empire. The Spanish interest in the desert coast of Western Africa's Sahara arose as the result of fishing carried out from the nearby Canary Islands by Spanish fishers and as a result of the Barbary pirates menace.

Spanish fishers were seal fur traders and hunters, fishers and whalers along the Saharan coast from Dakhla to Cabo Blanco from 1500 to the present, engaging in whaling for Humpback whales and their calves, mostly around Cape Verde, and the Gulf of Guinea in Annobón, São Tomé and Príncipe islands through 1940. These fishing activities had a negative impact on wildlife, causing the disappearance or endangering of many species, particularly marine mammals and birds.

The Spaniards established whaling stations with some cod fishing and trading. In 1881, a dock was anchored off the coast of the Río de Oro Peninsula to support the work of the Canarian fishing fleet.

However, it was not until 1884 that Spain formally founded the watering place as Villa Cisneros, in the settlement dated in 1502 by Papal bull. It was included in the enclaves conceded to the Spanish to the east of the Azores islands. In 1884, the settlement was promoted by the Spanish Society of Africanists and funded by the government of Canovas del Castillo.

The Spanish military, along with the Spanish Africanist Emilio Bonelli, claimed the coast between Cape Bojador and Cabo Blanco for Spain, founding three settlements on the Saharan coast: one in Villa Cisneros, named in honour of Francisco Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros (1436–1517), the Spanish prelate who was the Grand Inquisitor during the Spanish Inquisition; and another in Cabo Blanco for seal hunting, which was given the name of Medina Gatell; and another in Angra de Cintra with the name of Puerto Badia, in honour of the Arabist and adventurer Domingo Badia. Bonelli got the native inhabitants of the peninsula de Río de Oro to sign an agreement that placed them under the "protection" of the Kingdom of Spain. Due to the presence of the three new settlements, in December 1884 the Spanish Government officially informed the main colonial powers assembled at the Berlin Conference that the Spanish Crown was in possession of the territory lying between Cape Bojador and Cape Blanco.

During the colonial period, Spanish authorities made Dakhla the capital of the province of Río de Oro, one of the two regions of what was known as Spanish Sahara. They built a military fortress and a modern Catholic church. A prison camp also existed at the fort during the Spanish Civil War at which writers such as Pedro García Cabrera were imprisoned.

During the 1960s, the Francoist State also built Dakhla Airport, one of the three paved airports in Western Sahara. It was from Dakhla, then known as Villa Cisneros, that on 12 January 1976, General Gomez de Salazar became the last Spanish soldier to depart what until that moment had been the colony of the Spanish Sahara; faced with Moroccan and Mauritanian pressure, Spanish authorities decided to give up the territory peacefully, instead of undertaking a fight that they believed they could win but would have cost many lives on all sides. Between 1975 and 1979, Dakhla was the provincial capital of the Mauritanian province of Tiris al-Gharbiyya, as Mauritania annexed the southern portion of Western Sahara. Dakhla Airport is used as a civilian airport and by Royal Air Maroc. The 3000 m runway can accommodate a Boeing 737 or smaller aircraft. The passenger terminal covers 670 m² and is capable of handling up to 55,000 passengers per year.

Dakhla was occupied by Spain from the late 19th century to 1975, when power was then relinquished to a joint administration between Morocco and Mauritania. There was a United Nations-sponsored ceasefire in 1991, but as recently as 2006, most UN member states have refused to recognise Moroccan sovereignty in the area.

In 2020, the Gambia, Guinea, Djibouti, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo opened consulates in Dakhla.

Economy Dakhla's main economic activity is fishing and tourism. In recent years the town has become a centre for aquatic sports, such as kitesurfing, windsurfing and surf casting, and is known as a centre for water sports.

Golfo de Cintra and the Mauritanian Banc d'Arguin National Park are located in the south.

Oil A United States firm Kosmos Energy and its United Kingdom counterpart Cairn Energy began searching for oil in Western Sahara in early 2015.

Oyster industry Oyster farming by hand is a traditional practice in Dakhla. Oysters are first sold to people and businesses in Dakhla, then to restaurants in cities like Marrakesh or Casablanca, and then any left are sold to Europe. In April 2015, Vice Media reported that oysters had recently begun to be exported to high-end European restaurants.

El Aaiun Time 
El Aaiun Time
Image: cingularite

Dakhla has a population of over 106,277 people. Dakhla also forms the centre of the wider Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab Region which has a population of over 142,955 people. Dakhla is situated near Laâyoune.

To set up a UBI Lab for Dakhla see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns, Sister Cities Dakhla has links with:

🇪🇸 Algeciras, Spain 🇵🇸 Bethlehem, Palestine 🇪🇸 Cádiz, Spain 🇮🇹 Crotone, Italy 🇪🇸 Laredo, Spain 🇮🇹 Vibo Valentia, Italy
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

Antipodal to Dakhla is: 164.067,-23.7

Locations Near: Dakhla -15.9333,23.7

🇲🇷 Nouadhibou -17.04,20.937 d: 327.7  

🇲🇷 Zouérat -12.467,22.733 d: 370.2  

🇮🇨 Santa Lucía de Tirajana -15.533,27.917 d: 470.6  

🇮🇨 San Bartolomé de Tirajana -15.573,27.926 d: 471.3  

🇪🇭 El Aaiún -13.396,27.179 d: 463.2  

🇮🇨 Telde -15.42,27.993 d: 480.1  

🇪🇭 Laâyoune -13.208,27.159 d: 472  

🇮🇨 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria -15.44,28.13 d: 495.1  

🇮🇨 Las Palmas -15.44,28.13 d: 495.1  

🇮🇨 Arona -16.667,28.1 d: 494.7  

Antipodal to: Dakhla 164.067,-23.7

🇳🇨 Koné 164.852,-21.059 d: 19710.5  

🇳🇨 Nouméa 166.45,-22.267 d: 19723.7  

🇻🇺 Port Vila 168.315,-17.737 d: 19218.4  

🇦🇺 Hervey Bay 152.855,-25.29 d: 18867.3  

🇦🇺 Fraser Coast 152.831,-25.291 d: 18864.9  

🇦🇺 Caloundra 153.133,-26.8 d: 18863.2  

🇦🇺 Sunshine Coast 153.087,-26.653 d: 18862.9  

🇦🇺 Buderim 153.053,-26.685 d: 18858.8  

🇦🇺 Southport 153.405,-27.974 d: 18847.7  

🇦🇺 Gold Coast 153.416,-28.002 d: 18847.5  

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