Chafarinas Islands

The Chafarinas Islands, also spelled Zafarin, Djaferin or Zafarani, are a group of three small islets located in the Alboran Sea off the coast of Morocco with an aggregate area of 0.525km2, 45km to the east of Nador and 3.3km off the Moroccan town of Ras Kebdana.The Chafarinas Islands are one of the Spanish territories on North Africa off the Moroccan coast known as plazas de soberanía.HistoryThese offshore islands were uninhabited and unclaimed at the time the French government decided in 1848 to occupy them in order to monitor the unruly tribes living in the border area between Morocco and French Algeria. A small expedition under the command of Colonel MacMahon (the future Marshal MacMahon) left Oran by sea and by land in January 1848 to take possession of the islands. Forewarned by its consul in Oran, Spain, which also coveted the Chafarinas, quickly dispatched a warship to the islands from Malaga. When the French arrived, the Spaniards had already taken possession of the islands in the name of Queen Isabel II.GeographyThe Chafarinas Islands are made up of three islands : Isla del Congreso Isla Isabel II Isla del Rey Under Spanish control since 1847, there is a 190-man military garrison on Isla Isabel II, the only stable population on the small archipelago, down from 426 people in 1900 and 736 people in 1910.