August 14 is Oued Ed-Dahab Day in Morocco.
This public holiday is also known as Oued Ed-Dahab Allegiance Day.
It commemorates the day Morocco recovered the southern province of Oued Ed-Dahab from Mauritania.
Oued Ed-Dahab-Lagouira is one of the sixteen regions of Morocco.
It lies within the disputed territory of Western Sahara.
Spain occupied the Western Sahara in the late 19th century.
In 1963, the United Nations proclaimed it a non-self-government territory.
Two years later, the UN adopted a resolution, asking Spain to decolonize the Western Sahara.
In 1975, Spain, Morocco and Mauritania signed the Madrid Accords that ended the Spanish presence in the territory and divided the Western Sahara between Mauritania and Morocco.
Morocco controlled the northern two-thirds of the territory, and Mauritania assumed control over the remaining southern part.
However, the Polisario Front (a national liberation movement of the Sahrawi people) refused to acknowledge Moroccan and Mauritanian sovereignty.
This led to a war which ended in August 1979.
Mauritania signed a peace treaty with Polisario, renouncing its claim to Oued Ed-Dahab, and Morocco annexed the entire Western Sahara.
The day Morocco annexed the southern one-third of the Western Sahara is now celebrated as Oued Ed-Dahab Allegiance Day.
