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Sidi Ifni (Berber: Ifni, ⵉⴼⵏⵉ) is a city located on the west coast of Morocco, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, with a population of 20,051 people. The economic base of the city is fishing. It is located in Guelmim-Oued Noun region and Sidi Ifni Province. Its inhabitants are the Shilha from the Ait Baamrane ethnic group. In 2000, an important fishing port was completed, which serves as a base for fish exports. [edit] History
The Ait Baamran ethnic group have long inhabited the small town and the surrounding region. The people worked in husbandry and traded with Europeans and northern Morocco, being intermediaries in the trans-Saharan trade. In 1476, an enclave in the region of present-day Sidi Ifni was occupied by forces from the Spanish peninsula, which named its settlement there Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña. It remained in Spanish hands until 1524 when it was captured by forces of the Saadi Sultanate. Historically, Sidi Ifni is claimed to be the location of Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña, which had been long pursued by Spain, who built a small coastal fortress there in the 15th century. Although the existence of the fortress is widely documented, historians could not determine its exact location along the coast between Agadir and Tarfaya. In 1860, following the Spanish-Moroccan War, Morocco ceded Sidi Ifni and the territory of Ifni to Spain as a part of the Treaty of Tangiers. During the period often termed the "Scramble for Africa", in 1884 Spain acquired what is now Western Sahara. Spain occupied Sidi Ifni and Western Sahara jointly, although the latter was known at the time as Spanish Sahara, Río de Oro or Saguia el-Hamra. Until 1952, the Ifni region had the status of a protectorate. In that year, the region became part of Spanish West Africa, an entity that combined the colonies of Spanish Sahara and Cape Juby, with its capital located in Villa Bens— now called Tarfaya and currently in Morocco. When Morocco obtained its independence from France, and then Spain, in 1956, it claimed the territory several times. The first was in August 1957, by stating that the French-Spanish treaty from 1912 had been abrogated. By late 1957 serious incidents had occurred at the border, starting the Ifni War, where Ifni garrisons were attacked by irregular troops led by Moroccan nationalists of the Istiqlal party, supported tacitly by the king. They called themselves the Moroccan Liberation Army. The Spanish Army retreated from most territory with the purpose of establishing a defensive line limited to Sidi Ifni and its surroundings, while the Moroccan Liberation Army took control of the abandoned territory. The war was never formally declared nor finished, but on 1 April 1958, Spain and Morocco signed the Agreements of Angra de Cintra, by which Cape Juby was ceded to Morocco in June 1958. The lost territories of Ifni region were never regained by Spain, but were integrated into Morocco. Once the defensive line at Sidi Ifni was settled, the city remained under Spanish rule as a province of Spain, comparable to the Spanish enclave cities, Ceuta and Melilla, on the northern coast of Morocco. In 1969, under international pressure, Spain relinquished Sidi Ifni to Morocco. [edit] Research Tips
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