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reOnald Trump was widely ridiculed earlier this week for suggesting that Spain imitates his $ 25 billion dream for the US-Mexico border and "build a wall" across the Sahara Desert.
According to Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borell, the US president said: "The border of the Sahara can not be bigger than our border with Mexico."
But Trump – and some of his detractors – does not seem to know that there is already a wall bordering a corner of the Sahara: at 2,700 km, the wall of Western Sahara Moroccan, known as Berm, more than doubles the length of the wall. American-Mexican border.
It is made of sand, patrolled by more than 100,000 Moroccan soldiers and designed to keep Sahrawi seeking independence in the eastern part of the desert – and away from the natural resources of the region.
Morocco has occupied its southern neighbor of Western Sahara since 1975, when Spain, the colonial power, withdrew and the country of North Africa waged a 15 year war against the Polisario Front, the independence movement.
"When Trump says you should build a wall in the Sahara – look at the effect of the wall in Western Sahara," said Manuel Devers, Polisario Front's legal representative, noting that the minefield lining the bank contamination in the world .
"Morocco has decided to invade the rest of Western Sahara because of its natural resources, phosphates and fishing. Western Sahara has the most important fishing resources in all of Africa, "said Devers.
"North Africa does not need a wall, it needs the end of the occupation of Western Sahara. You do not need a wall, you need economic prosperity.
European countries are trying to find ways to keep the number of migrants reaching its borders; Many of them come from sub-Saharan Africa and take the "way back" to the desert.
Last year, Italy reached an agreement with militias on the border between Libya and Niger to stop human trafficking.
"The militias are proactive and motivated by financial gains, while the walls are not effective. Walls are not a deterrent, "said Philippe Frowd, Security, Migration and Sahel Specialist at the University of Ottawa. "Trump accidentally asks important questions."
A wall like the one the US president proposed should cross at least five countries and many important trade routes, said Frowd, who said Trump's comments ignore the deep ties between North and West Africa .
"The EU has something better than a wall – it has the Mediterranean Sea and the partnership of governments like Niger. The numbers are down, it seems to work, "said Frowd.
