Scores arrested on second day of Morocco protests: NGO / Photo: Abdel Majid BZIOUAT - AFP
Scores arrested on second day of Morocco protests: NGO
Scores of people were arrested Sunday in Morocco during a second consecutive day of scattered protests called by a group seeking educational and public health reforms, according to a local rights group and AFP journalists.
In Rabat, security forces prevented groups of young people from gathering in several places in the city centre, where dozens were detained.
The protests, which also saw dozens of arrests on Saturday, were initiated by a collective known as "GenZ 212", whose founders remain unknown.
Hakim Sikouk, president of the Rabat branch of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH), reported "more than 100 arrests in Rabat and dozens of others in Casablanca, Marrakesh, Agadir and Souk Sebt".
Sikouk also said that more than 70 people arrested the day before in Rabat had been released.
AFP was unable to reach the police on Sunday, and the authorities have made no official comment.
The arrests were condemned by the AMDH, as well as opposition parties.
GenZ 212 had put out the call for protests days before on the platform Discord, citing issues such as "health, education and the fight against corruption", while professing its "love for the homeland".
The protests come at a time of popular discontent over Morocco's social inequalities, which have disproportionately affected young people and women.
Recent reports of the deaths of eight pregnant women at a public hospital in Agadir have been a particular source of public outrage.
Z.Bhatia--MT
