Africa’s Last Colony

Tindouf, Algeria—The world’s longest conveyor belt is 62 miles long, and shoots up to 2,000 tons of white rocks per hour in a straight line through undulating Saharan dunes, from the Bou Craa phosphate mines in the occupied Western Sahara into the Atlantic industrial port at Laayoune. Satellite images show a slash in the sand that is ghostly and geometrical. White dust builds up around the belt and streaks away into the camel-colored emptiness. Morocco illegally exports hundreds of millions of dollars worth of phosphates each year from what it considers its “southern province.” It contracts to foreign fishing fleets the rights to coastal stocks, which are among the world’s richest and seethe with bluefin tuna, octopus, sardines, and corbina. Morocco is set to add oil sometime this year or next to the list of illegally-exploited resources that Sahrawi refugees in southern Algeria say are funding the occupation of their...