Ifni War
| Ifni War | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ifni before the conflict and after |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Spain France
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 Moroccan Army of Liberation
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Francisco Franco José María López Valencia René Coty
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Ben Hammu
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 10,000 | 30,000 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Unknown (at least 400 dead by December 1957), 500 wounded | unknown | ||||||||
| 7 Spanish civilians killed | |||||||||
| UN General Assembly Resolution 2072 (XX) |
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|---|---|
| Date | 16 December 1965 |
| Meeting no. | 1398 |
| Code | A/RES/2072(XX) (Document) |
| Subject | Ifni and Spanish Sahara |
| Result | Adopted |
The Ifni War, sometimes called the Forgotten War in Spain (la Guerra Olvidada), was a series of armed incursions into Spanish West Africa by Moroccan insurgents that began in October 1957 and culminated with the abortive siege of Sidi Ifni.
The war, which may be seen as part of the general movement of decolonization that swept Africa throughout the later half of the 20th century, was conducted primarily by elements of the Moroccan Army of Liberation which, no longer tied down in conflicts with the French, committed a significant portion of its resources and manpower to the capture of Spanish possessions.
The city of Sidi Ifni was incorporated into the Spanish colonial empire in 1860. The following decades of Franco-Spanish collaboration resulted in the establishment and extension of Spanish protectorates south of the city; Spanish influence obtained international recognition in the Berlin Conference of 1884. In 1946, the region's various coastal and inland colonies were consolidated as Spanish West Africa.
When Morocco gained independence from France in 1956, the country expressed their keen interest in all of Spain’s possessions in Morocco, claiming that it was historically and geographically all part of Moroccan territory. Sultan Mohammed V encouraged efforts to re-capture the land and personally funded anti-Spanish conspirators, Moroccan insurgents and indigenous Sahrawi rebels to claim Ifni back for Morocco.
Violent demonstrations against Spanish rule erupted in Ifni on April 10, 1957, followed by civil strife and widespread killings of those loyal to Spain. In response, Generalissimo Franco dispatched two battalions of the Spanish Legion, Spain's elite fighting force, to El Aaiún in June.
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Wikipedia