Morocco’s fourth day of youth protests devolves into violence
Protests in Morocco led by young people calling for better healthcare and education turned violent with police on Tuesday night. This was the fourth day in a row of protests in a number of cities.
Teenage activists, calling themselves “GenZ 212,” planned the protests online using sites like TikTok, Instagram, and the game app Discord.
Local media and eyewitnesses say that hundreds of young protesters threw stones at police who were trying to break up the gatherings in the towns of Tiznit, Inzegane, and Ait Amira in the south, as well as in Oujda in the east.
Local news sites shared video of protesters flipping and damaging several police cars in Ait Amira, 560 kilometers south of Rabat.
Videos going around on social media from Inzegane showed protesters in masks trying to break into a post office, while others fought with police who used water guns.
Videos and accounts from people who were there say that some cars were set on fire and that protesters tried to break into a major supermarket.
Reuters was told that in Tiznit, further to the south, dozens of protesters threw stones at police as they tried to break up the gathering.
For a short time, protesters shouted things like, “The people want an end to corruption.”
A Reuters witness said that police arrested dozens of young people in Rabat, the capital, before they could start shouting slogans in a neighborhood with a lot of people.
The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) said that 37 young people will be tried in Rabat while they are out on bail.
The cases and arrests were called unconstitutional by Hakim Saikuk, who is in charge of the AMDH section in Rabat.
The public prosecutor in Casablanca says that 24 protesters who stopped a highway on Sunday are being looked into by the police.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the government coalition said they were ready to talk with young people “in institutions and public spaces to find realistic solutions.”
It also praised what it called “the cautious response of security forces in line with legal requirements.”
The ministry of the interior was not ready right away to talk about what happened.
