The country of Morocco is experiencing the most youth-led unrests in its history, regarding government expenditure on the Men 2030 world football championship, with almost 300 police officers and citizens reported to have been injured. The protests, which started on the weekend, extended to other cities towards the end of the night on Tuesday, indicating increased disillusionment as to ineffective services to the people and the extravagant infrastructure projects.
The Moroccan Interior Ministry confessed that no less than 263 security officers and 23 civilians were injured throughout 17 cities in the most recent night of disturbances. The government also cited the arrest of 409 people over the protests. A leaderless, tech-savvy organization known as GenZ212 has been leading the unrest and through social media has been able to organize and mobilize people nationwide.
The demonstrations point to a profound discontentment with the state intentions of using an estimated 35 billion dollars of infrastructure funding, including the hosting of the world cup 2030 with Spain and Portugal, among others. This is viewed by many Moroccans and especially the young people as a waste of resources in a nation of 38 million with a high rate of unemployment and poor health and education system. Slogans by protesters like “Health Care First, We Don’t Want the World Cup” have been used to stress their need to access basic services of the state rather than mega sporting events.
The government called the situation a dangerous escalation and said that some protestors have used knives and firebombs. The Interior Ministry threatened that anyone found guilty of any unlawful activity would be handled ruthlessly and squarely. At the same time, the largest human rights lobby of Morocco, AMDH, estimates that more than 1,000 individuals have been detained since the beginning of the protests, of which 148 in the capital Rabat alone, and charged with contempt of public security to violence.
The scope of unrest is uncharacteristic of Morocco, which is commonly considered as one of the more stable states in the Middle East and North Africa.
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