About 165,000 Sahrawi refugees are living in camps in the Algerian desert, having fled the Morocco-controlled territory of Western Sahara.

Many left in 1975 at the start of a lengthy war of independence between the indigenous Sahrawi group, Polisario Front, and Moroccan and Mauritanian troops.

The refugees live in camps 180 km (110 miles) from the Algerian town of Tindouf, near the border with Western Sahara. Because of their isolated situation, the majority are wholly dependent on aid for their survival. But that aid is sporadic, meaning they often face serious food shortages.

The Sahrawi are from nomadic tribes who traditionally wandered over vast areas including parts of Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and Western Sahara. In the 1960s, however, they began to settle in the region, sparking calls for self-rule.

Western Sahara is 266,000 sq km (103,000 sq miles), roughly the size of the United Kingdom. The desert territory holds phosphates, rich fisheries and potentially offshore oil.

The Algerian-backed Polisario Front was set up in 1973 and is the official Sahrawi representative.

Sahrawi claims to self-determination were recognised by the International Court of Justice in 1975 when the territory, then called Spanish Sahara, was controlled by Spain. Spain agreed to hold a referendum to decide the future status of the territory.

But Morocco and Mauritania said they had historic claims to the territory and in November 1975 Morocco ordered 350,000 Moroccans waving flags and copies of the Koran to march into the territory on what was called the Green March.

Spain agreed to transfer power to Morocco and Mauritania in 1975. Morocco took over the northern two thirds, including large phosphate mines and most of the towns, while Mauritania was left with a thinly populated wasteland in the south.

As soon as the Spanish had withdrawn their troops in 1976, Polisario declared the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), set up a government-in-exile based in Algeria and began fighting Moroccan and Mauritanian troops.

The SADR is now recognised by many governments and is a full member of the African Union. It has promised to give foreign oil companies exploration rights if it achieves independence.

Mauritania signed a peace deal with Polisario in 1979, and Morocco annexed Mauritania's share of the territory. Polisario guerrillas continued to fight Moroccan soldiers.

The two sides finally signed a U.N.-brokered peace agreement in 1991, which has since been monitored by the U.N. Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). There are currently 232 U.N. peacekeeping soldiers in the region.

Under the peace deal, Morocco agreed to hold a referendum to decide the future status of the territory, but this has never been held.

Initially there were disputes over who was eligible to vote. About 273,000 people live in the territory, including both Sahrawi and Moroccans who moved there after the Green March. Polisario did not want the latter to be allowed to vote.

More recently the dispute has been over what people can vote for. In 2003 the United Nations proposed that Western Sahara become semi-autonomous for up to five years, and then a referendum be held on whether it should become independent, semi-autonomous or integrated with Morocco.

Polisario agreed to this, but Morocco has refused to hold a referendum which allows people to choose full independence.

The Security Council has passed resolutions calling for a settlement but none has happened. Four rounds of U.N.-sponsored peace talks in New York between June 2007 and March 2008 have failed to make progress. The two sides have agreed to meet again at some unspecified time in the future.

Rabat is trying to persuade Polisario to accept its plan for Western Sahara to be an autonomous part of Morocco. Polisario wants a referendum among ethnic Sahrawis that includes an option of independence.

Until they resolve the situation, the Sahrawi refugees will be forced to remain in the Algerian camps.

The World Food Programme (WFP) says 95 percent of the refugees are dependent on food aid. Serious food shortages often occur because of a lack of funds.

In addition, a limited diet over decades has left many refugees malnourished. The basic WFP food aid package does not include meat, vegetables or fruit. It contains flour, lentils, vegetable oil, salt and sugar.

Floods in February 2006 left 50,000 people homeless and triggered a airlift operation by the U.N. refugee body, UNHCR, to bring in emergency supplies of tents, mattresses, plastic sheeting and blankets.

Women and children make up 80 percent of the refugees, according to the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). The women supervise the distribution of aid among the camps and the use of water resources.

In September 2005, UNHCR and WFP decided to reduce the number receiving aid to the most vulnerable 90,000 because of difficulties with registration of the refugees. They plan to maintain this figure until UNHCR can carry out a proper census of the camps.

The Confidence-Building Measures Project, run jointly by UNHCR/MINURSO since 2004, tries to connect Sahrawi refugees in camps in Algeria with their relatives in the Western Sahara through family visits and telephone calls.

In 2007, UNHCR warned that only half of its $3.5 million appeal for the project had been raised, and said that part of the programme might have to be suspended.

WFP says malnutrition rates are high. Nearly a third of children under six have stunted growth and two-thirds are anaemic.

In early 2005, a WFP/United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) nutrition survey found that an "alarming" 66.4 percent of women of childbearing age had anaemia, a rise from 47.6 percent in 2002.

A mission of U.N. health experts in early 2007 found "dire" conditions in the camps. Dangerous levels of malnutrition among children, widespread anaemia, poor hygiene and high maternal mortality rates were some of the problems they encountered.

Malnourished and anaemic children are more likely to die of childhood diseases, have poor mobility and difficulty learning at school. Anaemic women are more likely to die in childbirth, according to the World Health Organisation.

People in Western Sahara have a much lower standard of living than the Moroccan average, according to the CIA World Factbook.

They have been separated from their families, forcibly relocated and had their nomadic way of life "turned upside down by urbanisation and sedentarisation ... a process encouraged by Morocco to enhance security and facilitate surveillance", according to International Crisis Group report 'Western Sahara: The Cost of the Conflict'.

Western Sahara is split in two by a 2,500 km wall - built by Morocco during the war - which separates it into Moroccan and Polisario-controlled territories. Morocco controls about 85 percent of the land.

Both sides of the wall are heavily mined - estimates by Geneva Call range between 5 and 10 million mines. Despite the risks, several thousand Sahrawi nomads live in the mined areas.

Another 2-5 million mines were laid in other parts of Western Sahara, Algeria and Maurtiania, according to International Crisis Group.

MINURSO says civilians and their livestock are killed or injured in mine accidents every month and the numbers are likely to increase in the event that refugees begin to return. For more on the problem see the 2007 Landmine Monitor report.