Morocco faces renewed protests after two men die in abandoned mine,

Anger and demonstrations have spread across Morocco after two people were killed while extracting coal from a shuttered mine. What are protesters demanding, and will the government respond?

Jerada is a small town in northeastern Morocco located some 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Oujda, Morocco’s largest city; before December 22, it was not well-known even domestically. But on that day two young men, aged 23 and 30, were killed while extracting coal from a mine, and the nation’s eyes have been on Jerada ever since. The young men’s deaths sparked an outpouring of anger in the former mining center to such a degree that the villagers originally refused to bury the two victims. Their funeral turned into a demonstration of more than ten thousand people – in a town with a population of just 45,000 people.

The protests in Jerada were seen in the Arabic media as being similar to the Harak al-Rif, or “rural mobility,” protests that occurred after the death of the fish seller Mouhcine Fikri, who was crushed to death in a garbage truck in October 2016. The rural mobility demonstrations led to many arrests, including protest leader Nasser al-Zafzafi, who is still in prison.

No economic alternatives      

Deutsche Welle spoke with Moroccan journalist Rachid Balghiti about how the protests in Jerada compare to those after Fikri’s death and how the Moroccan state might respond. Balghiti told DW that the crisis in Jerada actually dates back decades.

In the 1990s a large mine there employed many people before closing and leaving many without work. The mine closure meant that people who used to work in the mine were forced to extract coal illegally and sell it to various groups across the country at a reduced price.

On December 28, around ten thousand people gathered in Jerada for an investigation of the deaths of the victims and punishment of officials. But their demands extended to financial compensation and a viable economic alternative to those put out of work since the mine closed.

Hisham Hamani, an activist involved with the demonstrations, told DW that the protesters want electricity prices to be lowered and the social agreement of 1989 to be implemented. The agreement between various trade union centers, which represented the miners in Jerada, was an attempt to find an economic alternative to the mine closure. In reality, however, the agreement has not been enacted since 1998, Hamani explained.

Balghiti blamed the state for the revival of the illegal mining activities, saying that “if the state itself is the one who closed the mine, which is the main supplier to the region, how do they give licenses to those who sell coal? They are the ones who revive these practices in light of the poverty and unemployment of the population,” he told DW. “The state should be clear. If it needs coal, it must codify and secure the safety of these mining activities or else completely renounce coal as a resource, go to other sources of energy and therefore not give licenses to those who sell coal. Otherwise, the same problem will remain,” he said.

Multiple regions making similar demands

Though the protests in Jerada were sparked by the men’s deaths, the discourse has morphed into larger issues. Thousands of citizens have come together to call for economic development and the end of economic marginalization. However, the protests have not yet taken a similarly political tone to those that took place during the Arab Spring period, known as the February 20 movement.