Bou Craa (Bo Craa, Bu Craa) is a town in the Saguia el-Hamra regions of northern Western Sahara, south and slightly west of the capital, El Aaiún. It is inhabited almost entirely by employees of the Moroccan-controlled Bou Craa phosphate industry. Most of these workers are ethnically Moroccan, although some are Sahrawi, the indigenous ethnic group of Western Sahara. Sahrawi unions and humanitarian groups accuse the industry of being discriminatory against the Sahrawis. During the Spanish colonization of the area (see Spanish Sahara) time, many early recruits of the nationalist movements Harakat Tahrir and Front Polisario were Sahrawi workers in the phosphate mines. This region of Western Sahara makes up the northern third of the country. ... El-Aaiún or Laâyoune (Arabic: العيون, transliterated al-`ayÅ«n), is the unofficial capital of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony now mostly controlled and occupied by Morocco. ... In chemistry, a phosphate is a polyatomic ion or radical consisting of one phosphorus atom and four oxygen. ... Sahrawi (also Saharawi, Arabic SaHrāwÄ«) is a term used for the indigenous people of Western Sahara, but there are also Sahrawi communities in other countries. ... The word indigenous is an adjective derived from the Latin word indigena, meaning native, belonging to, aboriginal; and has several applications: Indigenous peoples, communities and cultures native or indigenous to a territory; Indigenous (band), a Native American blues-rock band; In biology, indigenous means native to a place or biota... An ethnic group is a group of people who identify with one another, or are so identified by others, on the basis of a boundary that distinguishes them from other groups. ... World map of colonialism at the end of the Second World War in 1945. ... Spanish Sahara was the name used for the modern territory of Western Sahara when it was ruled by Spain, created from the Spanish territories of Rio de Oro and La Aguera in 1924. ... Nationalism is an ideology that creates and sustains a nation as a concept of a common identity for groups of humans. ... Sahrawi movement for the independence of Western Sahara. ... ...

The phosphates are transported to the coast by an automated conveyor belt, the longest such belt in the world. This transportation system was raided and disabled several times by the Front Polisario, during the war that followed Morocco's 1975 invasion of Western Sahara. These attacks gradually ceased in after the town was enclosed in the early 1980s by the Moroccan Wall, and the town is presently under Moroccan control. Point of contact between a power transmission belt and its pulley. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... System of the Moroccan Walls in Western Sahara (territory outside them in yellow) The Moroccan Wall is a 2,720 km-long system of defensive walls/berms, running mainly through Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara. ...