Despite of its adverse environment, the desert hosts a number of peoples. Only the Sahara desert is estimated to count with about 2.5 million of inhabitants. The scattered clusters of dwellers grouped here and there among vast empty areas count for about 0.4 per square kilometer. Apart from supporting the harsh natural conditions, the desert peoples don't lack their own political conflicts, as is the one of Western Sahara, a Spanish province between 1958 and 1976 and actually a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa, partially controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and partially occupied by neighboring Morocco.