Sahara Press Service is the multi-lingual official press agency of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is a partially recognised state that claims sovereignty over the entire territory of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony. SADR was proclaimed by the Polisario Front on February 27, 1976, in Bir Lehlu, Western Sahara. The SADR government controls about...

, the government in exile

Government in exile

A government in exile is a political group that claims to be a country's legitimate government, but for various reasons is unable to exercise its legal power, and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile usually operate under the assumption that they will one day return to their...

 of the Western Sahara

Western Sahara

Western Sahara is a disputed territory in North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its surface area amounts to . It is one of the most sparsely populated territories in the world, mainly...

. It was established at the Sahrawi refugee camps on March 29, 1999 (A POLISARIO agency press had been founded previously in 1980). Among the founders of SPS was the journalist and then SADR Minister of Information Mohamed Fadel Ismail Ould Es-Sweyih

Mohamed Fadel Ismail Ould Es-Sweyih

Mohamed-Fadel Ould Ismail Ould Es-Sweyih was a Sahrawi nationalist politician, member of the Polisario Front. He was a prominent member of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic diplomatic corps, holding several posts as SADR ambassador or Polisario Front representative.In 1972 he got involved in...

. Its current Director General and Editor in chief is Lemhamid Sidi Mohamed.

The agency mainly report government-related news and current Sahrawi affairs, both from the liberated territories

Free Zone (region)

The Free Zone or Liberated Territories is a term used by the Polisario Front to describe the part of Western Sahara that lies to the east of the Moroccan Berm and west and north of the borders with Algeria and Mauritania, respectively...

, the occupied territories

Southern Provinces

The Southern Provinces or Moroccan Sahara are the terms used by Morocco for Western Sahara, in reference to the part of Western Sahara that lies to the west of the Moroccan Berm...

 and the Sahrawi refugee camp

Refugee camp

A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees. Hundreds of thousands of people may live in any one single camp. Usually they are built and run by a government, the United Nations, or international organizations, or NGOs.Refugee camps are generally set up in an impromptu...

s in Tindouf

Tindouf

Tindouf is the main town in Tindouf Province, Algeria, close to the Mauritanian and Moroccan borders. The region is considered of strategic significance, and it houses Algerian military bases. Since 1975, it also contains several Sahrawi refugee camps operated by the Polisario Front a guerrilla...

, Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

. Reports were published only in French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 until 2001, when the SPS website was opened. On March 2001, news started to be published also in Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

. On April 20, 2003, the news were also published in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 on the website. Finally on 2005, SPS added Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

 to the language options of their site. Since September 2010, SPS release a weekly news resume bulletin on PDF format.