Bou Craa

{{Infobox settlement | official_name = Bou Craa | native_name = {{native name|mey|بوكراع}}<br/>{{native name|ber|ⴱⵓⴽⵔⴰⵄ}} | other_name = {{lang|es|Bucraa}} | image_skyline = ISS056-E-32453 - View of Western Sahara.jpg | imagesize = | image_caption = View of Bou Craa phosphate mine from space, taken in 2018 | image_flag = | image_seal = | image_map = | map_caption = | pushpin_map = Western Sahara#Africa | pushpin_relief = 1 | pushpin_label_position = bottom | pushpin_mapsize = 300 | pushpin_map_caption = Location in Western Sahara | subdivision_type = Non-Self-Governing Territory | subdivision_name = Western Sahara | subdivision_type1 = Region | subdivision_name1 = Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra | subdivision_type2 = Province | subdivision_name2 = Laâyoune | subdivision_type3 = Claimed by | subdivision_type4 = Controlled by | subdivision_name3 = {{flag|Morocco|name=Kingdom of Morocco}}<br />{{flag|Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic}} | subdivision_name4 = {{flag|Morocco|name=Kingdom of Morocco}} | population_as_of = 2004 | population_total = 2519{{efn|According to Morocco's Higher Planning Commission.}} | timezone = Africa/El_Aaiun | utc_offset = 0 | coordinates = {{coord|26|19|22|N|12|50|59|W|region:EH|display=inline}} | elevation_footnotes = | elevation_m = | elevation_ft = | postal_code_type = | postal_code = | area_code = | website = | footnotes = | area_total_km2 = 211.62 | area_total_sq_mi = 81.71 | population_density_km2 = 11.9 | population_density_sq_mi = 4.59 }} '''Bou Craa''' (also transliterated as ''Bo Craa'', ''Bu Craa'' or ''Boukra'') ({{langx|ar|بوكراع}}, Berber: ⴱⵓⴽⵔⴰⵄ, {{langx|es|Bucraa}}) is a town in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara, southeast of the main city of El Aaiún. It is inhabited almost exclusively by employees of phosphate company Phosboucraa, a subsidiary of Morocco's OCP Group.

Historically located in the Saguia el-Hamra region, Bou Craa is the site of a phosphate deposit of over 1.7 billion tons. Mining operations by Phosboucraa started in 1972.<ref name="PazzanitaHodges1994">{{cite book|author1=Anthony G. Pazzanita|author2=Tony Hodges|title=Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Io6AAAAMAAJ|year=1994|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-2661-8|page=79|chapter=Bou-Craa}}</ref> During the Spanish colonization of the area (see Spanish Sahara), many early recruits of Sahrawi nationalist movements such as the Movement for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Wadi el Dhahab and Polisario Front were workers in the phosphate mines.{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}}

The town became part of the Moroccan-occupied zone in the April 1976 partition resulting from the Madrid Accords.<ref name="PazzanitaHodges1994"/> It has remained in Moroccan hands, though mining was paused in 1976 as a result of Polisario guerilla attacks. During the Western Sahara War, the Polisario sabotaged and disabled this transportation system several times. These attacks gradually ceased in the early 1980s when the town become enclosed by the Moroccan Wall, which consolidated Moroccan occupation over the north-western part of Western Sahara (the so-called "Useful Triangle"<ref>{{Cite book|last=Shelley|first=Toby|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fgNjDgAAQBAJ&dq=western+sahara+%22useful+triangle%22&pg=PT156|title=Endgame in the Western Sahara: What Future for Africa's Last Colony|date=2013-07-04|publisher=Zed Books Ltd.|isbn=978-1-84813-658-8|language=en}}</ref>). Mining resumed on a reduced scale in July 1982.<ref name="PazzanitaHodges1994"/>

Today, the mine produces around 3 million tonnes annually, which represents 10% of Morocco's total production.<ref name="BHP">[http://bhpbillitonwatch.net/2010/11/15/western-sahara-bou-craa-phosphate-mine/ WESTERN SAHARA: Bou Craa Phosphate Mine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018060552/http://bhpbillitonwatch.net/2010/11/15/western-sahara-bou-craa-phosphate-mine/#|date=2015-10-18}}, BHP Billiton Watch, November 15, 2010.</ref> The phosphates are transported to the coast by an automated conveyor belt. Approximately {{convert|100|km}} long, the belt is the longest in the world and dust blown from it is visible from space.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-05-02 |title=The World's Longest Conveyor Belt System |url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-worlds-longest-conveyor-belt-system |access-date=2024-03-21 |website=Atlas Obscura |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-03-26 |title=What is Continental negotiating with OCP? |url=https://wsrw.org/en/archive/4687 |access-date=2024-03-21 |website=Western Sahara Resource Watch |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2018-09-23|title=Bou Craa Phosphate Mine, Western Sahara|url=https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/92794/bou-craa-phosphate-mine-western-sahara|access-date=2021-01-05|website=earthobservatory.nasa.gov|language=en}}</ref>

==Twin towns== *{{flagicon|SPA}} Castro Urdiales, Spain *{{flagicon|SPA}} Llodio, Spain

==References== {{Historical populations || |2004|2519 }}{{reflist}} {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

==External links== *[https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150869/worlds-longest-conveyor-belt-system World’s Longest Conveyor Belt System], from the Bou Craa mine to the port at El Marsa, Western Sahara. Article at NASA Earth Observatory, January 21, 2023

{{coord|26|19|22|N|12|50|59|W|region:EH_type:city(2519)|display=title}}

Category:Populated places in Western Sahara Category:Mines in Western Sahara Category:Company towns Category:Phosphate mines Category:Rural communes of Morocco Category:Populated places in Laâyoune Province