Cape Bojador - in Modern Times

In Modern Times

The Spanish originally claimed the land from 20° 51' N (near Cap Blanc) to 26° 8' N (near Cape Bojador) in 1885. This would be a protectorate governed from the Canary Islands in 1887. France would later claim the Western Sahara. The boundary was settled in a joint French-Spanish convention in 1900 to divide the area between Spanish Sahara and French West Africa.

Spain claimed a protectorate over the coastal region from Cap Blanc, far to the south of Cape Bojador, to a point about 200 km to the north in 1884. In 1975, as Spain pulled out following the Madrid Accords, Morocco sought to gain control over the area, leading to disputes between Morocco and the Polisario Front, the organization which proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in February 1976.

Today the towns near Cape Bojador are prospering due to a large influx of Sahrawi settlers though many of the native Sahrawis are still refugees in the camps of Tindouf, Algeria.

In the Tindouf region of Algeria, there is a refugee camp for Sahrawis named after Cape Bojador. See Daira de Bojador.