Morocco has been facing waves of protests for several months.
In late October 2016, Mohcine Fikri, a fisherman in the northern Moroccan city of Al Hoceima, saw his 500kg catch of swordfish seized by the police.
As his merchandise was being crushed in a truck, he tried to save his only means of living and was crushed himself. Witnesses have said that the police did nothing when they saw Mohcine Fikri throwing himself in the truck which led to his death.
Even worse, and that was the starting point of the protests, the police allegedly told the truck driver in charge to “crush the hell out of him”.
An open conflict between civil society and the local authorities and police forces over the sequence of the events soon started and protests have been raging in the northern Rif region in Morocco since then.
Even though Fikri's death caused national uproar and nationwide protests, the weekly protests initially took place only in Rif before spreading out to the rest of Morocco in the past few weeks.
They are finding echo in the general discontent in the population regarding the lack of economic opportunities, failing or non-existent infrastructures and creeping corruption that were highlighted through the government's treatment of this issue.
Indeed, after national elections took place on November 2016, and new political parties came on the political scene, Morocco witnessed one of its first political deadlocks, lasting for months.
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