Descendants of the Recabites, the Saharauis are a Bedouin tribe – some of whom had settled in the Western Sahara, near the ocean. The area became a Spanish colony in the late nineteenth century for over 100 years until 1976. The Moroccan government displaced the Saharauis by bringing Moroccan citizens into western Sahara, displacing them from their homes and lands into the desert. A subsequent war forced a greater part of the Saharaui population into the desert where they live in refugee camps supported by the UN since it is an area of scarce water or food. Read more about The Sahara Refugee Project