Morocco blocks Amazigh national conference

The Moroccan authorities have banned the Amazigh movement in the country from holding a national conference scheduled for later this month, Hespress has reported.

According to the newspaper, the movement aimed to use the conference to regroup its ranks and mobilise efforts to give new impetus to its work. It has witnessed a decline in recent years which was exacerbated in the recent elections when activists announced that they were joining a political party.

In response to the ban, the Preparatory Committee for the National Conference of the Amazigh Movement in Morocco has described the move as illegal.

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“The ban is a negative indicator, and it reflects the bias of a political party that has been striving to organise gatherings without any problem,” said Saeed Al-Farwah, a member of the committee. “We have paid due respect to all of the stipulated legal steps, and tried for three weeks by all legal means to implement the requirements of the law and exercise the right to gather, but the authorities confirmed several times that the holding of the National Conference of the Amazigh movement in Sidi Ifni has been rejected.”

He revealed that the organisers are studying two options: stick to the original plan and hold the conference in Sidi Ifni, or move it to another place at a later date. Farwah insisted that the conference has not been cancelled and will be held.

The Amazigh are indigenous peoples who inhabit the area extending from Siwa Oasis in western Egypt to the Atlantic coast; and from the Mediterranean in the north to the Great Desert in the south.