Sahara and the impact in Dakhla

Sahara and the impact in Dakhla


Throughout the past years the conflict between the Saharan people and the Moroccans has stayed ablaze with their conflicts. In the Sahara which is metaphorically impossible to hear the gospel has been a place where great impact has taken place, people coming to the knowledge Christ through visions and dreams. What has caused all this amazing work that has taken place?

In the city of Dakhla I have had privilege to sit with one young guy who was a soldier for the Saharans and fought against the Moroccans, and talking to him was a little occurred with him because he wasn’t comfortable because of the nervousness of his faith and the experience he has with people, looking at him and seeing the pain of suffering within his face I made him understand that I wasn’t there to conflict but to have a chat. Talking with him he later opened about his faith in Christ and made me astonish, I later wanted to hear more about his experience he had.

I introduce myself and he later introduce himself as Hamza (to leave his real name secret because of the danger he is) Hamza spoke to me with the story of how he came to the faith.

Hamza said: “I was one day sitting under a tree and a man came to me asking what I was doing there sleeping, he later spoke to me saying I’m resting because I need rest as I am looking after the sheep, later on the man said the true rest is with the one who you will spend eternity with, I later looked at him and saying to myself, is this an Imam or a holy man speaking to me, the man told me to go back to my tent where I will find a book waiting for me there. I went back home and found that an “injil” (Bible) was there and began to read it and asked myself how can this be false? As it’s full of love, forgiveness and redemption for all humanity.

Hamza was searching for the truth and found it through Christ and later opened up to me and shared the pain he has gone through as he accepted Christ.

Following Christ is with a price of losing your life. Hamza had to change where he lived as there were people after him because of the decision that he made to follow Christ, even today the chase for his life is there. According to Hamza there are believers in the Sahara today and it through fellowship with another that builds their faith in the situation that they are in.

I had the privilege to sit with Hamza for tea and encouraged him with his faith and prayed alongside with that God will open the doors for the Sahara.

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Jesus Christ.



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Dakhla, Morocco

Dakhla, Morocco





Dakhla is a small town around 1000km south of Essaouira, located on a 48km long and 4km wide peninsula which stretches into the Atlantic Ocean, creating a huge lagoon.

Dakhla was founded in 1502 by Spanish settlers during the expansion of their Empire. The Spanish interest in Western Africa in desert coast of Sahara was the result of fishing activities carried out from the nearby Canary Islands by Spanish fishers and the Barbary pirates menace.
Spaniard fishers were seal fur traders and hunters, fishers and whalers in Sahara coast from Dakhla to Cabo Blanco from 1500 to present, extending by West coast of Africa to whaling humpback whales and whale calves, mostly in Cape Verde, and Guinea gulf in Annobon, São Tomé and Príncipe islands just to 1940. These fishing activities have had a negative impact on wildlife causing the disappearance or endangered of many species, it highlighting marine mammals and birds.

They established whaling stations with some cod fishing and trading. In 1881, a dock was anchored off the coast of the Río de Oro Peninsula to support the work of the Canarian fishing fleet.
However, it was not until 1884 that Spain refounded formally the watering place as Villa Cisneros, in the settlement dated in 1502 by papal bull. It was included in the enclaves conceded to the Spanish at east of the Azores islands. In 1884, the settlement was promoted by the Spanish Society of Africanists and funded by the government of Canovas del Castillo. The military and Spanish Arabist Emilio Bonelli recognized the coast between Cape Bojador and Cabo Blanco, founding three settlements in the Saharan coast: one in Villa Cisneros in honor of cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, another in Cabo Blanco for seal hunting, which gave the name of Medina Gatell, and another in Angra de Cintra with the name of Puerto Badia, in honor of the Arabist and adventurer Domingo Badia. Bonelli got the native inhabitants of the peninsula de Río de Oro signed an agreement which placing them under the protection of Spain. Thanks to the presence of the three seatlements in December that year The Spanish government put in communication of the Collonial Powers assembled at the Berlin conference, which was adjudged possession of the territory lying between Cape Bojador and Blanco.

During the colonial period, the Spanish authorities made Dakhla the capital of the province of Río de Oro, one of the two regions of what was known as Spanish Sahara. They built a military fortress and a modern Catholic church, both of which remain points of interest for visitors to the city. A prison camp also existed here during the Spanish Civil War, at which writers such as Pedro García Cabrera were imprisoned.
During the 1960s, the Francoist dictatorship also built here one of the three paved airports in Western Sahara at Dakhla Airport. Between 1975 and 1979, Dakhla was the province capital of the Mauritanian province of Tiris al-Gharbiyya, as Mauritania annexed portion of Western Sahara. Dakhla Airport is used as public airport and by the Royal Air Maroc. The 3 km. long runway can receive a Boeing 737 or smaller planes. The passenger terminal covers 670 m² and is capable to handle up to 55,000 passenger/year.

The main economic activity of the city is fishing and tourism. In recent years the town has become a centre for aquatic sports, such as kitesurfing, windsurfing and surf casting.

The location of our brand new Club Mistral & Skyriders center is on the north-eastern coast of that peninsula.
The huge sandy lagoon provides fantastic conditions with constant winds throughout the whole year, flat water and more than enough space.
Beginners, professionals and everybody else will find kitesurfing at its best here. As an added bonus the other side of the peninsula offers perfect wave conditions which can be reached within no time by car.

Apart from kitesurfing there are many other activities which will make your stay an active and diverse one – at Club Mistral & Skyriders Dakhla you can be sure to have a fantastic holiday in an untouched environment far away from mass tourism.
Dakhla is a diamond in the rough, a new born kitesurfing mecca which you won´t find a second time in the whole wide world.


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General info about Morocco

General info about Morocco

Marrakech lies on a plain between the Middle and High Atlas mountains. It is one big oasis in a desertlike landscape. We have seen mainly palmtrees (dades) and olive trees, but also orange trees and cactusses. Except for a lot of birds we have seen some exotic animals on Jemaa el Fna square (snakes, monkeys) but they live in captivity.
Click for more information about the flora and fauna in Morocco.

In 788, about a century after the Arab conquest of North Africa, successive Moorish dynasties began to rule in Morocco. In the 16th century, the Sa'adi monarchy, particularly under Ahmad AL-MANSUR (1578-1603), repelled foreign invaders and inaugurated a golden age. In 1860, Spain occupied northern Morocco and ushered in a half century of trade rivalry among European powers that saw Morocco's sovereignty steadily erode; in 1912, the French imposed a protectorate over the country. A protracted independence struggle with France ended successfully in 1956. The internationalized city of Tangier and most Spanish possessions were turned over to the new country that same year. Morocco virtually annexed Western Sahara during the late 1970s, but final resolution on the status of the territory remains unresolved. Gradual political reforms in the 1990s resulted in the establishment of a bicameral legislature, which first met in 1997. The country has made improvements in human rights under King MOHAMMED VI and its press is moderately free. Despite the continuing reforms, ultimate authority remains in the hands of the monarch.
Morocco has a subtropical climate, tempered by oceanic influences that give the coastal regions moderate temperatures. Toward the interior, winters are colder and summers warmer, a more continental climate. At high altitudes temperatures of less than -17.8° C (0° F) are not uncommon, and mountain peaks are covered with snow during most of the year.


Rain falls mainly between November and April. Precipitation is heaviest in the northwest and lightest in the east and south. The last few years there almost has been no rain in the south and east of Morocco.
The warmest month in Marrakech is August, with temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius. We visited in September and at day it was between 32 and 40 degrees, at night between 24 and 29 degrees.
Morocco is surrounded by the Mediterranean in the north, the Atlantic Ocean in the west, Algeria in the east and Mauretania in the south. There are two mountain ranges in Morocco: the Rif Mountains and the Atlas. The Rif lies parallel to the Mediterranean coast, it's highest peak being the Tidirhine (2,456 m). It is an inaccesible range with a lot of erosion. The Atlas consists of the Middle Atlas (the northwestern range) and the High Atlas which is connected to the southern range, the Anti-Atlas. In the High Atlas, which separates the Atlantic coast from the Sahara, lies the highest peak of North Africa (Djebel Toubkal, 4,165 m). The greater part of the population lives on the fertile plains along the coast. South and east of the Atlas Mountains are dry steppes and deserts.

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