RABAT: Members of a Moroccan online youth collective protested for the eighth consecutive day on Saturday, demanding better public health and education services.
The demonstrations in the usually stable North African kingdom have bucked the perception of young Moroccans as being politically disengaged, and have been organized since last Saturday by GenZ 212, a group active on the web platform Discord.
In Tetouan, in the north of the country, hundreds of people gathered, chanting slogans such as “The people want an end to corruption” and “Freedom, dignity and social justice,” local media reported.
In the western city of Casablanca, protesters shouted “The people want education and health,” while in the capital, Rabat, a dozen people gathered in front of parliament, an AFP photographer said.
GenZ 212, whose founders remain anonymous, earlier on Discord called for protests in 14 cities between 6:00 p.m. (1700 GMT) and 9:00 pm.
They want reforms to social services, particularly health care and education, as well as an end to corruption and the resignation of Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, whose tenure ends next year.
On Friday evening, hundreds of people rallied in numerous cities, including Rabat and Agadir.
Two days earlier, there were reports of violence in several smaller towns, with three people killed by police “in legitimate defense” after they allegedly tried to storm a station in the village of Lqliaa, near Agadir, the authorities said.
GenZ 212, which has more than 180,000 members on Discord, insists on the nonviolent nature of its protests, and the gatherings since then have been largely peaceful.
The rallies follow on from isolated protests that broke out in mid-September in several cities after reports of the deaths of eight pregnant women at the public hospital in Agadir who had been admitted for cesarean sections.
Demonstrators have seized on the deaths as evidence of the public health sector’s shortcomings, feeding wider discontent over social inequalities.