Ras Nouadhibou

Ras Nouadhibou ( _ar. رأس نواذيبو) is a 40-mile peninsula or headland called also known as "Cap Blanc" (French), or "Cabo Blanco" (Spanish) or simply "Cap Blanco".

History

The Spanish originally claimed the land from 20° 51' N (near Cap Blanc) to 26° 8' N (near Cape Bojador) in 1885. This would be a protectorate governed from the Canary Islands in 1887. France would later claim the Western Sahara. The boundary was settled in a joint French-Spanish convention in 1900 to divide the area between Spanish Sahara and French West Africa. [ [http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS084.pdf International Boundary Study, Algeria-Western Sahara 1968] ]

Location

This thin stretch of land is divided between Mauritania and Western Sahara. On the western side, lies the Sahrawi town of Lagouira; on the eastern side, less than a mile from the border, lies Mauritania's Nouadhibou (formerly Port Etienne).

References