Authorities have confirmed that at least two people have been killed in Morocco after police opened fire to stop protesters from barging into a police station in Lqliaa, near the coastal city of Agadir.
The State Media confirmed these as the first deaths since huge youth-led protests broke out across Morocco on Saturday, as anger grew over the government’s decision to build football stadiums for the 2030 FIFA World Cup instead of improving public services and tackling the economic crisis.
“Stadiums are here, but where are the hospitals?” is a popular chant among the Gen Z protesters.
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One protester said that going to the hospital in his city, Oujda, on the border with Algeria, was like “entering a jail”, he told BBC Newsday.
The protester added that “It was dirty, and patients had to bribe security officers and nurses to see a doctor.”
The protests have often taken place at night, and cops say they were forced to open fire “in legitimate self-defence” on Wednesday evening to repel the “attack” in Lqliaa, the state-owned news agency reported.
In the early hours of Wednesday, the interior ministry revealed that the right of people to protest within the law would be upheld.
Organizers of the youth-led protest movement known as GenZ 212 – the number refers to Morocco’s international dialing code – have distanced themselves from the violence, reports the BBC.
Sources say they have been rallying mainly through social media, and do not have a formal structure of leadership.
Morocco’s unemployment rate currently stands at 12.8%, with youth unemployment soaring to 35.8% and 19% among graduates, according to official statistics from Reuters news agency.
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Also, protests have struck the capital, Rabat, the main commercial city, Casablanca, and the port city of Tangier – often the arrival point for tourists going to Morocco by ferry from Spain.
Morocco’s tourist hub, Marrakech, was also hit by violence, with protesters burning a police station, according to local media.
Rachid El Khalfi, the Interior Ministry spokesman, stated that after the unrest, 409 people have been detained across Morocco.
On Tuesday, the nation’s governing coalition released a statement expressing willingness to engage in dialogue with the youth “within institutions and public spaces to find realistic solutions.”
Moreover, it went on to laud what it described as “the balanced reaction of security authorities in line with relevant legal procedures”.
