Ryanair has started flights to an up-and-coming seaside town on the Atlantic Coast of the Western Sahara that locals hope will soon attract thousands of tourists.
Dakhla is the capital of the Moroccan administrative region Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab.
With a population of some 106,000, it is located on the narrow Rio de Oro Peninsula on the Atlantic Coast.
The town is undergoing massive redevelopment, with buildings springing up left and right as money pours in from investors determined to transform Dakhla into a major tourist destination.
Investors do not appear the slightest bit concerned that the town is located on disputed territory at the centre of Africa’s longest-running conflict.
When Spanish colonists left the Western Sahara in 1975, Morocco immediately annexed it, claiming the territory as its own.
However, Sahrawi guerrillas, known as the Polisario Front, fought Morocco for control of the area in a war that lasted 16 years, mounting raids from their refugee camps across the border in Algeria.
Morocco constructed a 1,700-mile barrier of sand and stone the length of Western Sahara during the 1980s to shore up its territorial claims.
They left a land strip corresponding to about 20% of the desert to the Algerian-based rebels.
A UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991 brought hostilities to a temporary halt before the Polisario Front resumed low-key attacks again in 2020.
Recently, the militia’s leaders have threatened to escalate their military campaign and have accused Ryanair of breaking international law by offering flights to the area.
The airline company insists its “operations comply with all applicable aviation regulations”.
Morocco’s claims to the territory have been boosted by recent US, Spanish and French backing – a measure encouraging businesses to invest.
A French businessman told The Times the rebels posed no danger to visitors and welcomed Ryanair’s decision to fly from Lanzarote and Madrid to the resort.
Sebastien Deflandres, who owns several businesses, said: “This is the safest place in Morocco. Everywhere, even in Corsica in France, there is a minority who object.”
The coastline around Dakhla is ideal for kitesurfers, with over 300 days of wind a year.
The resort hosted one round of the Kite-Surf World Cup last year, seeking to promote its brand to a wider audience.
The weather is also perfect for sunbathers, with temperatures staying in the mid-twenties most of the year and seldom rising above 30C even in the summer.