The 2003 Casablanca bombings, commonly known as May 16, were a series of coordinated suicide bombings on May 16, 2003, in Casablanca, Morocco. Twelve suicide bombers loyal to the Salafia Jihadia organization detonated bombs hidden in backpacks in the Casa de España restaurant, the Hotel Farah, the Jewish Alliance of Casablanca, and sites near the Belgian consulate and an old Jewish cemetery. The attacks, which were later claimed by al-Qaeda, were the deadliest terrorist attacks in Morocco's history, claiming the lives of forty-five people and injuring at least 100. Despite deliberately targeting Jews, none of the victims were Jews as the attack occurred during Shabbat.
Al Hoceima is a city in the north of Morocco, on the northern edge of the Rif Mountains and on the Mediterranean coast. It is the capital city of the Al Hoceima Province. The city is a known tourist destination despite its small size. It has a population of about 56,716, according to the 2014 census.
The Rif or Riff, also called Rif Mountains, is a geographic region in northern Morocco. It is bordered on the north by the Mediterranean Sea and Spain and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, and is the homeland of the Rifians and the Jebala people. This mountainous and fertile area is bordered by Cape Spartel and Tangier to the west, by Berkane and the Moulouya River to the east, by the Mediterranean to the north, and by the Ouergha River to the south. The Rif mountains are separated into the eastern Rif mountains and western Rif mountains.
Morocco became a highly repressive country under the absolute monarchy of King Hassan II, and continues to be considered repressive under the reign of King Mohammed VI, though the latter has instituted some reforms. Dozens of journalists, artists, and ordinary citizens are regularly sentenced to lengthy prison sentences for exercising basic rights enjoyed elsewhere in the world, such as freedom of the press, protesting the government, or criticizing government officials. Morocco heavily restricts basic human rights, such as freedom of speech, the right to assembly, and the right to criticize officials. Moroccans also feel the pressures of inflation within the country, such as the lack of basic services like healthcare, clean water, and the difficulty of parents to access quality education for their children. While there have been a handful of reforms that have been generally welcomed internationally, most Moroccans feel this is insufficient, and continue to be unhappy with the trajectory of the country under the policies of King Mohammed VI, despite his transition of the government to an ostensible constitutional monarchy. Under his father, King Hassan II, Morocco had one of the worst human rights records in Africa and the world, especially during the time period known as the "Years Of Lead", which lasted from the early 1960s until the late 1980s; it was a period in the country's history that was known for the brutal repression of political dissent and opposition, that involved wide-scale arrests, arbitrary detention, lengthy imprisonment, and even killings of political opponents. Currently, Morocco continues to face some of these issues, as well as other human rights problems, such as poor prison conditions, the mistreatment of women and the LGBT community, and the widespread use of torture by police. Despite the considerable improvements made in the last several years under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, who has rolled back some of his father's harshest decrees, repression of political dissidence, and torture of citizens by officials, is still commonplace in Morocco today.
The Gdeim Izik protest camp was a protest camp in Western Sahara, established on 9 October 2010 and lasting into November that year, with related incidents occurring in the aftermath of its dismantlement on 8 November. The primary focus of the protests was against "ongoing discrimination, poverty and human rights abuses against local citizens".
A list of suspects and convictions related to the 2004 Madrid Train Bombings.
Ali Anouzla is a Moroccan journalist, known for his critical articles of King Mohammed VI's rule. Since December 2010 he has been the editor-in-chief of the online media platform Lakome, which he co-founded along with Aboubakr Jamaï. Lakome was most notably behind the uncovering of the Daniel Galván scandal in which Mohammed VI was found to have pardoned, as a gesture "demonstrating good relations between him and King Juan Carlos I of Spain" a Spanish serial child rapist sentenced to 30 years in Morocco of which he spent only a year and a half. The scandal led to unprecedented spontaneous demonstrations against the Moroccan monarch in early August 2013. On 17 September 2013, Ali Anouzla was arrested in a raid against his home in Rabat, officially for having linked to an El País article which contained a video allegedly posted by AQIM and hosted on the website of the Spanish newspaper. He was later charged with "Knowingly providing material assistance to terrorists acts". Many observers saw this as a revenge for the Daniel Scandal episode.
The Daniel Galván scandal was a political scandal in which Mohammed VI, the King of Morocco, issued a pardon for a Spanish convicted serial child rapist named Daniel Galván. The Spanish citizen was serving a thirty-year prison sentence. He was arrested in Morocco in late 2011, for having raped at least eleven Moroccan children in Kenitra, a city he had been living in since 2004. The pardon came some 18 months after his incarceration as part of a diplomatic gesture from Mohammed VI to Spain, on the occasion of the 14th anniversary of his enthronement.
Amina Bouayach is a Moroccan human rights activist. Since December 2018, Bouayach has served as the president of the Moroccan National Human Rights Council. In this role, she affirmed in 2019 that there are no "political prisoners in Morocco."
The Brussels Islamic State terror cell was a group involved in large-scale terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015 and Brussels in March 2016. The terror cell was connected to the Islamic State (IS), a jihadist terrorist organisation primarily based in Syria and Iraq.
Mouhcine Fikri was a Moroccan fish vendor from Al Hoceima. On October 28, 2016, a police officer confiscated 500 kg of swordfish that he had purchased from Al Hoceima port. When Fikri climbed into the back of a rubbish truck to retrieve the confiscated fish, worth over $11,000, the rubbish crusher mechanism was activated, crushing him to death. A witness is said to have heard the police officers involved order the crusher to be activated, leading to the man's death. Video footage of his death was widely played on social media in Morocco. Outrage led to protests in Al Hoceima, that spread across Morocco. Fikri's death drew parallels with the suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian fruit seller whose death in 2010 sparked protests in Tunisia, leading both to revolution there and to the wider Arab Spring.
Nasser Zefzafi is a Moroccan political activist and human rights activist. Known as the "Moroccan Gandhi" or "Moroccan Pasionaria" for his nonviolent protests, Zefzafi has been described as the leader of the popular resistance movement organized in the Rif in 2016–2017 as Hirak Rif.
The Hirak Rif Movement or the Rif Movement is a popular resistance movement that organised mass protests in the Berber Rif region in northern Morocco between October 2016 and June 2017. The movement was triggered by the death of Mouhcine Fikri, a fishmonger who was crushed to death after jumping in the back of a garbage truck attempting to retrieve his allegedly illegal fish merchandise confiscated by local authorities.
Salima Ziani also known as Silya is a Moroccan singer-songwriter, human rights activist, feminist, and ex-political prisoner. She was born and grew up in the Afzar neighborhood of Al Hoceima. She later moved to Imzouren, in the Rif Region, where she's originally from. She is the youngest of six siblings: four sisters and two brothers.
Omar Radi is a Moroccan investigative journalist and human rights activist. He has worked at Lakome, Atlantic Radio, Media 24, TelQuel and Le Desk and volunteered for the citizen media Mamfakinch, focusing on investigations about human rights, corruption and social movements. He was detained in Casablanca on 26 December 2019 for criticizing a judge in a tweet posted six months earlier. His arrest triggered a movement of solidarity among his sympathizers. He was handed a suspended four-month prison sentence, a verdict criticized by some NGOs and human rights groups.
Events in the year 2020 in Morocco.
El Mortada Iamrachen, also known as Abdallah El Kassimi, is a Moroccan political and social activist who was a member of 2011–2012 Moroccan protests and Hirak Rif Movement (2016/2017).
Saïd Bouteflika is an Algerian politician and academic. He is the brother and was a special adviser of Abdelaziz Bouteflika in his former role as President of Algeria, on whom he would have had "considerable influence", especially after the president suffered a serious stroke in 2013. He was also an assistant professor at the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene (USTHB).
Events in the year 2024 in Morocco.
The Riffian independence movement is an ongoing political movement aiming for international recognition of the Rif region in Northern Morocco, as a state independent from the Kingdom of Morocco. The movement is rooted in several instances of indigenous territory being colonized, ruled, and marginalized by different powers and the riots and civil disobedience resulting from it, including the 1958 Rif riots and the Hirak Rif movement. While Riffian independence has been a topic of protest and organization in the past, the formal and internationally noted independence movement could technically be considered to have begun in September 2023 with the formation of the Rif Nationalist Party (PNR).
