Al Mahbes () is a town in the UN-monitored

buffer zone A buffer zone, also historically known as a march, is a neutral area that lies between two or more bodies of land; usually, between countries. Depending on the type of buffer zone, it may serve to separate regions or conjoin them. Common types o ...

Western Sahara Western Sahara is a territorial dispute, disputed territory in Maghreb, North-western Africa. It has a surface area of . Approximately 30% of the territory () is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 70% is ...

, near the

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

n border, some northeast of

Bir Lehlou Bir Lehlou (also transliterated ''Bir Lahlou'', ''Bir Lehlu'' Arabic language, Arabic: بئر الحلو) is an oasis town in north-eastern Western Sahara, 236 km from Smara, near the Mauritanian border and east of the Moroccan Western Sahara ...

. Mahbes' partner municipalities are the Spanish city of

Noia Noia () is a town and municipality in the autonomous community of Galicia in northwestern Spain. It is the capital of the comarca with the same name. It has a population of 14,947 inhabitants (2010),Sesto Fiorentino Sesto Fiorentino (), known locally as just Sesto, is a commune in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, central Italy. History The oldest known human settlement in the area dates from the Mesolithic (c. 9,000 years ago). The Etruscan ...

and

San Giovanni Valdarno San Giovanni Valdarno is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Arezzo, Tuscany, central Italy, located in the valley of the Arno River. History According to the Italian medieval historian Giovanni Villani, the town was founded in 1296, by t ...

History

Two battles took place in Al Mahbes. The battle of Al Mahbes of 1979 and the battle of Al Mahbes that took place in 1985 during the

Western Sahara War The Western Sahara War (, , ) was an armed conflict between the Sahrawi indigenous Polisario Front and Morocco from 1975 to 1991 (and Mauritania from 1975 to 1979), being the most significant phase of the Western Sahara conflict. The confl ...

. Al Mahbes was hit by significant strikes and incursions by the

Polisario front The Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro (Spanish language, Spanish: ; ), better known by its acronym Polisario Front, is a Sahrawi nationalism, Sahrawi nationalist liberation movement seeking to end the occupatio ...

in 2021. Skirmishes also occurred in 2024.

References

Populated places in Western Sahara {{WesternSahara-geo-stub