Word: mauritania
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...second largest external force on the continent-after the Cubans. In addition to the legionnaires in Shaba, Paris has 7,000 troops garrisoned in such former possessions as the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Gabon and Djibouti. French forces also serve with the United Nations in Lebanon and twice recently-in Mauritania and Chad-have come to the assistance of governments facing intense guerrilla pressure. The increasingly visible presence of Giscard's troops has earned them the unflattering sobriquet "the French Cubans" and raised accusations that they represent a new form of colonialism...
...Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Seif Bin Ghobash. Their presumed target: Syria's visiting Foreign Minister, Abdul Halim Khaddam. In a remote region of northwestern Africa, guerrillas of the Polisario front, which is seeking independence for the former province of Spanish Sahara, kidnaped two French nationals in Mauritania, bringing to 13 the number of French hostages they are believed to be holding somewhere in Algeria. Following a special Cabinet meeting in Paris, French Defense Minister Yvon Bourges angrily denounced "this veritable act of piracy...
...angry ants in a vast sandpile, the combatants in a little-known African war of liberation are carrying out search-and-destroy missions in the desolate 100,000-sq.-mi. area once known as the Spanish Sahara. On one side are an estimated 30,000 troops from Morocco and Mauritania, which claimed the land that Spain surrendered sovereignty over last year under strong United Nations pressure. Opposing are the 5,000 guerrillas of the Frente Polisario (for Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro, the two provinces involved). Polisario is fighting to gain independence...
...standoff. The Moroccans and Mauritanians hold the villages but venture cautiously into the desert for fear of ambush; Polisario fighters as a result roam freely over much of the territory, boastfully but inaccurately declaring it "liberated." The guerrillas, though, have carried the war into both Morocco and Mauritania. Last June Polisario even attempted a mortar attack on the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott (see map). Although the guerrillas lost 200 men, including Polisario's founder, Mohammed Wall, 28, in the battle, they consider the shelling of the Mauritanian capital a great victory. They have brought Mauritania close to economic disaster...
Classic Guerrillas. The war shows no sign of ending, reports Beckwith, even though Morocco and Mauritania have lost about 1,000 men since last February. Other Arab governments-notably Saudi Arabia-have tried to work out a diplomatic settlement, so far without success. Supplied with East Bloc arms by Libya and Algeria, Polisario is able to struggle on from sanctuaries near the Algerian border town of Tindouf, where about 40,000 Saharoui refugees live in 22 camps. By helping the guerrillas, President Houari Boumedienne is able to keep a third of Archenemy King Hassan's Moroccan armed forces tied...