RABAT/MARRAKECH: Moroccans risking their lives scraping coal from abandoned mines have listened to local officials, the Mining Ministry and a close royal ally since they began protesting five weeks ago. Now some of them want the king himself to intervene.
“When they closed the mines they offered us new jobs and compensation but nothing has happened,” said one former miner in the northern town of Jerada who declined to be named, fearing reprisal.
“We will keep protesting until our lives improve.”
The miners have been left behind by the economic liberalization that won plaudits from the International Monetary Fund at a regional conference in Marrakech this week headlined “Opportunity for all.”
King Mohammed VI has lifted living standards in urban and coastal areas and raised the country’s profile abroad, rolling out investment in Ivory Coast and other sub-Saharan countries.
But public dissatisfaction is growing in some poor areas at a time when the government is implementing currency reforms and cutting subsidies to drive economic growth.
The Jerada protests have found common cause with dissent that has rumbled since 2016 in the Rif, also in the north, both groups spurred by the deaths of men desperate trying to make ends meet.
They are a far cry from the mass protests which rocked the North African country in 2011 when uprisings ousted rulers in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
Stability in Morocco is important for Western governments as it is the only country in North Africa where jihadist groups have failed to gain a foothold. Rabat is also a key intelligence-sharing partner on counterterrorism.
At least 10 million people visit its beaches and cities each year, some of them switching from Egypt and Tunisia after those countries suffered political turmoil and militant attacks.
While Marrakech, an ancient city, is bustling with tourists and new buildings have gone up in the commercial center Casablanca and capital Rabat, the changes have bypassed rural areas like Jerada in the remote northeast.
Protests there swelled in late December after two brothers drowned scavenging coal deep underground: One of them hacked through into an adjoining water well, flooding the shaft.
On Thursday, another miner, in his early 30s, was killed when a shaft collapsed, the Interior Ministry said. Activists issued a renewed call for protests.
Residents say the town has been neglected since the mines closed some 20 years ago and tensions with Algeria shut the nearby border at around the same time.
The miners say they sell a bag of coal for between 60 and 80 dirham ($6.5-$8.7) to traders who pass it on for 600 dirham to restaurants, hotels and public baths.
Mining Minister Aziz Rabbah said in January the state had “reacted positively” to the town’s demands and a commission had been paying out compensation for closed mines.
Protests had rumbled against high electricity bills before the miners’ deaths, and Jerada residents say they will continue, even though dozens of leaders and members of the protest movement in Rif, Hirak al Chaabi, are now on trial.
Police have set up checkpoints to monitor people’s movements to and from Jerada, where residents say miners gather every week in the main square to demand state aid and alternative jobs.
The government is investing in tourism, with a new airport for the main northeastern city of Oujda, 60 km from Jerada, to bring tourists to equally new nearby coastal resorts.
It announced auto industry projects worth €1.23 billion ($1.54 billion) in December and hopes the currency reform will boost investment and help growth reach 3.4 percent this year, after 4 percent last year, when agricultural output was better.
Manufacturing jobs have been created, but not enough for a growing population and many young Moroccans have sought work abroad.
The king has called for more development, fired top officials in October after a state agency found inequality, and sent a close ally, Agricultural Minister Aziz Akhenouch, to Jerada late in January to talk to angry residents.
Akhenouch, one of Morocco’s richest men, announced agricultural investments worth around 28 million dirham ($8 million), local media said, but protests resumed the next day.
“The king is probably the only one who can solve this,” said Hoummani, the activist.
Geoff Porter from North Africa risk consulting said the government would find it hard to stick to its market liberalization without alienating the rural poor.
At the Marrakech conference, Prime Minster Saad Eddine El Othman said the government was rolling out programs to remove inequalities.
Abdelghani Ajjani from a Jerada commission negotiating with authorities, had yet to be convinced.
“The government has made the same promises they made when closing the mines,” he said. “There are people here who think the king should visit Jerada.”
Miners’ protest raises political temperature in Morocco
Miners’ protest raises political temperature in Morocco
Lebanon moves toward accepting ICC jurisdiction for war crimes on its soil
- Neither Lebanon nor Israel are members of the ICC
- Filing a declaration to the court would grant it jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute relevant crimes in a particular period
BEIRUT: Lebanon has moved toward accepting the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction to prosecute violations on Lebanese territory since October, in what Human Rights Watch said on Saturday was a “landmark step” toward justice for war crimes.
Lebanon has accused Israel of repeatedly violating its sovereignty and committing breaches of international law over the last six months, during which the Israeli military and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah have traded fire across Lebanon’s southern border in parallel with the Gaza War.
That cross-border shelling has killed at least 70 civilians, including children, rescue workers and journalists, among them Reuters visuals reporter Issam Abdallah, who was killed by an Israeli tank on Oct. 13, a Reuters investigation found.
Lebanon’s caretaker cabinet voted on Friday to instruct the foreign affairs ministry to file a declaration with the ICC accepting the court’s jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute crimes committed on Lebanese territory since Oct. 7.
The decree also instructed the foreign ministry to include in its complaints about Israel to the United Nations a report prepared by the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), an independent research institute.
That report looked specifically into Abdallah’s killing, and was produced by examining shrapnel, flak jackets, a camera, tripod and a large piece of metal that were gathered by Reuters from the scene, as well as video and audio material.
Neither Lebanon nor Israel are members of the ICC, which is based in The Hague. But filing a declaration to the court would grant it jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute relevant crimes in a particular period.
Ukraine has twice filed such declarations, which allowed for the court to investigate alleged Russian war crimes.
“The Lebanese government has taken a landmark step toward securing justice for war crimes in the country,” said Lama Fakih, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, urging the foreign minister to “swiftly” formalize the move by filing a declaration to the ICC.
“This is an important reminder to those who flout their obligations under the laws of war that they may find themselves in the dock,” Fakih said.
British troops may be tasked with delivering Gaza aid, BBC report says
- Britain is already providing logistical support for construction of US pier, including a Royal Navy ship that will house hundreds of American soldiers
LONDON: British troops may be tasked with delivering aid to Gaza from an offshore pier now under construction by the US military, the BBC reported Saturday. UK government officials declined to comment on the report.
According to the BBC, the British government is considering deploying troops to drive the trucks that will carry aid from the pier along a floating causeway to the shore. No decision has been made and the proposal hasn’t yet reached Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the BBC reported, citing unidentified government sources.
The report comes after a senior US military official said on Thursday that there would be no American “boots on the ground” and another nation would provide the personnel to drive the delivery trucks to the shore. The official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet made public, declined to identify the third party.
Britain is already providing logistical support for construction of the pier, including a Royal Navy ship that will house hundreds of US soldiers and sailors working on the project.
In addition, British military planners have been embedded at US Central Command in Florida and in Cyprus, where aid will be screened before shipment to Gaza, for several weeks, the UK Ministry of Defense said on Friday.
The UK Hydrographic Office has also shared analysis of the Gaza shoreline with the US to aid in construction of the pier.
“It is critical we establish more routes for vital humanitarian aid to reach the people of Gaza, and the UK continues to take a leading role in the delivery of support in coordination with the US and our international allies and partners,” Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement.
Development of the port and pier in Gaza comes as Israel faces widespread international criticism over the slow trickle of aid into the Palestinian territory, where the United Nations says at least a quarter of the population sits on the brink of starvation.
The Israel-Hamas began with a Hamas-led attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7, in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 people as hostages. Israel says the militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others. Since then, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s air and ground offensive, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, around two-thirds of them children and women.
Israeli soldiers kill two Palestinian gunmen in West Bank, military says
- Violence has been on the rise as Israel presses its attacks and bombardment in Gaza
RAMALLAH, West Bank: Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinian gunmen who opened fire at them from a vehicle in the occupied West Bank, the military said on Saturday.
The military released a photo of two automatic rifles that it said were used by several gunmen to shoot at the soldiers, at an outpost near the flashpoint Palestinian city of Jenin.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said security officials confirmed two deaths and the health ministry said two other men were wounded.
There was no other immediate comment from Palestinian officials in the West Bank, where violence has been on the rise as Israel presses its war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas led an attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which 1,200 people were killed and 253 taken hostage. More than 34,000 Palestinians have since been killed and most of the population displaced.
Violence in the West Bank, which had already been on the rise before the war, has since flared with stepped up Israeli raids and Palestinian street attacks.
The West Bank and Gaza, territories Israel captured in the 1967 war, are among the territories which the Palestinians seek for a state. US-brokered peace talks collapsed a decade ago.
Hamas says it received Israel’s response to its ceasefire proposal
- White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Friday he saw fresh momentum in talks to end the war and return the remaining hostages
- Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory
CAIRO: Hamas said it had received on Saturday Israel’s official response to its latest ceasefire proposal and will study it before submitting its reply, the group’s deputy Gaza chief said in a statement.
“Hamas has received today the official response of the Zionist occupation to the proposal presented to the Egyptian and the Qatari mediators on April 13,” Khalil Al-Hayya, who is currently based in Qatar, said in a statement published by the group.
After more than six months of war with Israel in Gaza, the negotiations remain deadlocked, with Hamas sticking to its demands that any agreement must end the war.
An Egyptian delegation visited Israel for discussion with Israeli officials on Friday, looking for a way to restart talks to end the conflict and return remaining hostages taken when Hamas fighters stormed into Israeli towns on Oct. 7, an official briefed on the meetings said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Israel had no new proposals to make, although it was willing to consider a limited truce in which 33 hostages would be released by Hamas, instead of the 40 previously under discussion.
On Thursday, the United States and 17 other countries appealed to Hamas to release all of its hostages as a pathway to end the crisis.
Hamas has vowed not to relent to international pressure but in a statement it issued on Friday it said it was “open to any ideas or proposals that take into account the needs and rights of our people.”
However, it stuck to its key demands that Israel has rejected, and criticized the joint statement issued by the USand others for not calling for a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Friday he saw fresh momentum in talks to end the war and return the remaining hostages.
Citing two Israeli officials, Axios reported that Israel told the Egyptian mediators on Friday that it was ready to give hostage negotiations “one last chance” to reach a deal with Hamas before moving forward with an invasion of Rafah, the last refuge for around a million Palestinians who fled Israeli forces further north in Gaza earlier in the war.
Meanwhile, in Rafah, Palestinian health officials said an Israeli air strike on a house killed at least five people and wounded others.
Hamas fighters stormed into Israeli towns on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages. Israel has sworn to annihilate Hamas in an onslaught that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians.
Yemen’s Houthis say their missile hit Andromeda Star oil ship in Red Sea
- US military confirmed that the Houthis launched three anti-ship ballistic missiles but caused minor damage to the ship
- A missile landed in the vicinity of a second vessel, the MV Maisha, but it was not damaged, US Centcom said on social media site X
CAIRO/LOS ANGELES: Yemen’s Houthis said on Saturday their missiles hit the Andromeda Star oil tanker in the Red Sea, as they continue attacking commercial ships in the area in a show of support for Palestinians fighting Israel in the Gaza war.
US Central Command confirmed that Iran-backed Houthis launched three anti-ship ballistic missiles into the Red Sea from Yemen causing minor damage to the Andromeda Star.
The ship’s master reported damage to the vessel, British maritime security firm Ambrey said.
A missile landed in the vicinity of a second vessel, the MV Maisha, but it was not damaged, US Central Command said on social media site X.
Houthi spokesman Yahya Sarea said the Panama-flagged Andromeda Star was British owned, but shipping data shows it was recently sold, according to LSEG data and Ambrey.
Its current owner is Seychelles-registered. The tanker is engaged in Russia-linked trade. It was en route from Primorsk, Russia, to Vadinar, India, Ambrey said.
Iran-aligned Houthi militants have launched repeated drone and missile strikes in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandab Strait and Gulf of Aden since November, forcing shippers to re-route cargo to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa and stoking fears the Israel-Hamas war could spread and destabilize the Middle East.
The attack on the Andromeda Star comes after a brief pause in the Houthis’ campaign that targets ships with ties to Israel, the United States and Britain.
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier sailed out of the Red Sea via the Suez Canal on Friday after assisting a US-led coalition to protect commercial shipping.
The Houthis on Friday said they downed an American MQ-9 drone in airspace of Yemen’s Saada province.
