Thousands of Moroccans shout slogans during a demonstration on May 18, 2017, in the northern town of Al-Hoceima, seven months after a fishmonger was crushed to death inside a garbage truck as he tried to retrieve fish confiscated by the police. Picture by: YOUSSEF BOUDLAL/Reuters/PA Images. All rights reserved. On 26th June, the first day of Eid celebrations, the popular march that was organised in the town of Hoceima, northern Morocco was brutally repressed. The people of the Rif region have decided to organise the “Eid March” in order to demand the release of their sons and daughters who have been imprisoned in the previous few weeks, and to denounce the ongoing violence and intimidation that the state is using against their resistance through a wide campaign of jailing and kidnappings of their activists and leaders.
In fact, the authorities have tightened their blockade of the region by closing the main roads leading to the town and it embarked on a general sweeping operation against citizens that were trying to reach Hoceima either by foot or through smaller non-paved roads and against those who were gathering in streets and squares in order to join the march. In spite of all of this, people from other neighbouring villages have succeeded in organising huge solidarity marches in order to break the suffocating blockade.
The Moroccan ruling elites use all means of repression, imprisonments, kidnappings and deeply unjust policies against the activists of the social movements in the Rif region as well as intimidation and harassment against the local populations in order to halt their protests which are advancing socio-economic demands. Moreover, these elites launched a vilification campaign in order to delegitimise and criminalise the popular movement that has expanded to other towns and parts of Morocco. These current protests and discontent are considered as a continuation of the popular mobilisations that the country witnessed in 2011, mobilisations led by the 20th February Movement in the context of the revolutionary process initiated by the Arab uprisings. This process is still alive and has been reignited by the brutal murder of the fish vendor, Mohsin Fikri who has been crushed in the most inhumane way in a garbage truck in October 2016. The people of the Rif are demanding that people responsible for this heinous murder to be made accountable, get to the whole truth around the assassination of five activists who have been killed in very obscure circumstances in the context of the 20th Feb 2011 mobilisations, the cancellation of the decree that considers the Hoceima department as a military region as well as other demands related to public amenities (schools, universities, hospitals, etc.) and infrastructure (roads) and employment for the youth, etc.
