The protests were organized online by a loosely formed anonymous youth group calling itself “GenZ 212,” using platforms including TikTok, Instagram and gaming application Discord.<\/p>\n
The government and judicial authorities have not yet communicated on the incidents and arrests and the interior ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
\nOn Monday evening, dozens were arrested as authorities prevented the group from holding protests in cities including Rabat, Casablanca, Agadir, Tangier and Oujda.
\nIn Rabat, a Reuters witness saw plainclothes officers arresting young protesters as they tried to chant slogans or speak to the press.<\/p>\n
The President of a Child Protection Association, Najat Anouar, was arrested as she was speaking to media and released two hours later.
\n“I came here to investigate allegations that the under-age have been arrested and got arrested myself,” she told Reuters.
\nOne group of protesters in downtown Rabat briefly managed to shout “freedom, dignity, and social justice”, a slogan echoing the 2011 demonstrations that prompted a constitutional reform devolving more powers from the Moroccan monarchy to the elected government.<\/p>\n
“We want a better health system and accountability,” said Brahim, 25, moments before fleeing as police sought to prevent people joining the protest.
\nOn Sunday night in Casablanca, protesters briefly blocked a major highway, while in Agadir, videos circulating on social media showed police dispersing students near the university campus.<\/p>\n
The recent wave of youth anger was sparked by earlier protests in Agadir over poor hospital conditions, which quickly spread to other cities.<\/p>\n
Demonstrators have denounced inadequate care, understaffed facilities, and a lack of medical resources.
\nMorocco’s unemployment rate stands at 12.8%, with youth unemployment reaching 35.8% and 19% among graduates, according to the national statistics agency.<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12394,"template":"default||default||default||default||default||default||default||default","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[],"class_list":["post-12393","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"A heavy security presence on Monday evening thwarted for a straight third day youth-led protests across several Moroccan cities, where demonstrators have sought to rally for improvements to the public health and education systems.||A heavy security presence on Monday evening thwarted for a straight third day youth-led protests across several Moroccan cities, where demonstrators have sought to rally for improvements to the public health and education systems.||A heavy security presence on Monday evening thwarted for a straight third day youth-led protests across several Moroccan cities, where demonstrators have sought to rally for improvements to the public health and education systems.||A heavy security presence on Monday evening thwarted for a straight third day youth-led protests across several Moroccan cities, where demonstrators have sought to rally for improvements to the public health and education systems.||A heavy security presence on Monday evening thwarted for a straight third day youth-led protests across several Moroccan cities, where demonstrators have sought to rally for improvements to the public health and education systems.||A heavy security presence on Monday evening thwarted for a straight third day youth-led protests across several Moroccan cities, where demonstrators have sought to rally for improvements to the public health and education systems.||A heavy security presence on Monday evening thwarted for a straight third day youth-led protests across several Moroccan cities, where demonstrators have sought to rally for improvements to the public health and education systems.||A heavy security presence on Monday evening thwarted for a straight third day youth-led protests across several Moroccan cities, where demonstrators have sought to rally for improvements to the public health and education systems.","published_date":null,"news_description":"","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18024,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12393\/revisions\/18024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=12393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}