Moroccan governor sacked after protests

Moroccan authorities have fired a provincial governor following days of angry protestors clashing with police, leaving dozens of officers injured, an interior ministry source told AFP.

Governor Mohammad Zhar was sacked when Interior Minister Mohammad Hassad visited Al-Hoceima earlier this week.

The demonstrations are the latest to rock the northern Berber province of Al-Hoceima since the death of a local fishmonger who was crushed to death in a rubbish truck in October last year. The province is located within the region of Rif which is seen as largely neglected and was the centre of the 2011 protests during the Arab Spring.

Read more: 14 people arrested for torching police station in Morocco

Zhar’s dismissal was a move to “clear the air” and “meet residents’ expectations for the region’s development,” the source explained.

Demonstrations kicked off on Sunday last week when stone-throwing protesters attacked a police station outside Al-Hoceima and then set fire to nearby buildings.

Fourteen arrests have been made so far by provincial authorities but the motives behind the protests have not yet been revealed.

According to Le360, the protests began when local schoolchildren protested against the lack of teachers and school transport. Several hundred protesters then marched this week into Al-Hoceima where things spiralled out of control.