Morocco: Call for Government Resignation After Deadly Protest Crackdown

A youth collective behind protests against socio-economic conditions and corruption in Morocco has called for the government’s resignation after a sixth consecutive night of demonstrations ended in a violent crackdown that left at least three people dead, local media reported Friday.

“We demand the dissolution of the current government for its failure to protect the constitutional rights of Moroccans and to respond to their social demands,” the collective said in a statement addressed to the royal palace. It also urged the opening of a “fair judicial process to prosecute those responsible for corruption.”

The protests, which began last Saturday, spread Thursday across several Moroccan cities, with demonstrators demanding better public health and education services, greater social justice and action against entrenched corruption.

Rights groups and activists denounced the heavy-handed response by security forces, which they said left three dead and hundreds injured. They called for those responsible to be held accountable and for the constitutional right to peaceful assembly to be respected.