Fez – Amina Sondok, a cashier at the Auchan Market in France, has filed a law suit against her employer for being denied access to a rest room while working her shift, a decision which allegedly led her to miscarry. On November 22, the 23-year-old Moroccan woman felt pain in her stomach and asked her
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Rabat – The Supreme Judicial Council’s spokesperson in Iraq, Abdulsatar Bayrakdar, has announced that Iraq’s Central Criminal Court confirmed a confession of ISIS recruitment by an internationally wanted Moroccan national. The Moroccan national, who speaks English, French, and Spanish, confessed that he was in charge of communication to recruit foreign ISIS fighters using Skype and previously […]
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Rabat – Al Hoceima has received thousands of tourists, with 23 percent more tourists visiting this winter, between January and March 2018, than visited last winter, the Regional Tourism Commission has reported. According to the report, 5,564 tourists visited rated tourist establishments during the three month period, an increase from 4,539 in the same period last […]
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Fez – The UN will celebrate its International Day under the theme ‘’UN Peacekeepers: 70 Years of Service and Sacrifice” on June 1, to pay tribute to seven Moroccans among the peacekeepers who died during peacekeeping operations in 2017. The celebration will pay tribute to more than 3,700 selfless peacekeepers who have heroically sacrificed their lives […]
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Rabat – The report also shows that 31% of public service users have paid a bribe, while 74 % think the government is doing a bad job of tackling corruption.
The survey reveals, however, that 49 % think that ordinary citizens can make a difference in the fight against corruption.
The survey, which is the largest and the most detailed in the world, covered 47,000 African citizens from 35 different African countries, including 1,200 Moroccans. The intent was to highlight the attitudes and experiences of bribery and corruption in their countries.
The report indicates that Moroccans think bribery is most prevalent among members of Parliament with 41% saying that MPs receive bribes. MPs were closely followed by the Prime Minister at 39 %, Local government officials at 38%, and Government officials at 37%.
Outside politics, 28% said that Business Executives receive bribes, judges and traditional leaders came in at 26%, police at 24%, and Government Organizations 22%. Religious leaders had the lowest rate at only 11%.
In terms of Public service users, 32 % have paid a bribe to the health service, and 31 % to police, while the lowest percentage was recorded in Public schools ( 6%).
The highest rates of bribery in the African continent were recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (80%), followed by Liberia (53%), and Sierra Leone (52%). The lowest rates were recorded in Mauritius (5%), Botswana (7%) and Cape Verde (8%)
Even though 49% think that ordinary people can make a difference in fighting it, the report’s key findings indicate that corruption in Africa is on the rise. The statistics through the integrity of public officials into doubt, despite government efforts to change the trend.
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Fez – In a video posted on YouTube, a Moroccan woman who claims she was enticed to Saudi Arabia for sexual slavery, desperately narrates her story of rape, torture, and imprisonment after arriving in Saudi Arabia to work as a domestic servant to provide for her daughter in Morocco.
The video which went viral on social media shows a woman called Lamiaa Moatamid entreating King Mohamed VI of Morocco to intervene in her case and see that she gets justice.
According to the woman, the story started when the alleged rapist with whom she had communicated via social media promised her a job in Saudi Arabia. When she arrived, she claimed she was forced to marry him under the threat of never being able to return to Morocco if she refused him.
Moatamid describes her revulsion at her husband’s abuse when he invited his friends to the home to have sex with her along with other women.
She recounts on the video that when she refused to have sex she was verbally and physically abused, and thrown out of the house.
She goes on to claim that she was subsequently raped and tortured by her “husband” and his friends later during Ramadan.
She says that she reported the rape to the authorities and also went to the Moroccan Embassy to ask for help, but when the Embassy staff asked her to give up the case in exchange for her Moroccan passport she was shocked.
Moatamid said that she was sent to jail after the investigation as she did not have anywhere else to go in Saudi Arabia. She was also committed to a center for psychiatric care for fifteen days for refusing to give up her case.
After a trial, which she says lasted approximately one year, she was sentenced to two years in jail.
Moatamid, who claims to have proof of her accusations including audio recordings, asked for help from the King of Morocco, asserting that she will be in danger of torture after posting the video. Her only wish is to die, she said, but her daughter’s welfare is at risk.
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Fez – In a video posted on YouTube, a Moroccan woman who claims she was enticed to Saudi Arabia for sexual slavery, desperately narrates her story of rape, torture, and imprisonment after arriving in Saudi Arabia to work as a domestic servant to provide for her daughter in Morocco.
The video which went viral on social media shows a woman called Lamiaa Moatamid entreating King Mohamed VI of Morocco to intervene in her case and see that she gets justice.
According to the woman, the story started when the alleged rapist with whom she had communicated via social media promised her a job in Saudi Arabia. When she arrived, she claimed she was forced to marry him under the threat of never being able to return to Morocco if she refused him.
Moatamid describes her revulsion at her husband’s abuse when he invited his friends to the home to have sex with her along with other women.
She recounts on the video that when she refused to have sex she was verbally and physically abused, and thrown out of the house.
She goes on to claim that she was subsequently raped and tortured by her “husband” and his friends later during Ramadan.
She says that she reported the rape to the authorities and also went to the Moroccan Embassy to ask for help, but when the Embassy staff asked her to give up the case in exchange for her Moroccan passport she was shocked.
Moatamid said that she was sent to jail after the investigation as she did not have anywhere else to go in Saudi Arabia. She was also committed to a center for psychiatric care for fifteen days for refusing to give up her case.
After a trial, which she says lasted approximately one year, she was sentenced to two years in jail.
Moatamid, who claims to have proof of her accusations including audio recordings, asked for help from the King of Morocco, asserting that she will be in danger of torture after posting the video. Her only wish is to die, she said, but her daughter’s welfare is at risk.
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Rabat – In a recent interview Abdelhak El Khiyame, head of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ), credits Morocco’s security vigilance as the reason for Morocco’s successful track record in foiling ISIS attacks.
El Khiyame explained that ISIS has started targeting sleeping cells in Morocco that avoid being tracked by police. According to El Khiyame, all of these plans have been thwarted as a direct result of Morocco’s integrated approach, combining security, social and economic components.
In an attempt to trick Moroccan authorities, ISIS has recruited terrorists from different nationalities. Such was the case with Chadian Abu El Batul who wanted to create an ISIS branch in Morocco with the help of some Algerians, El khiyame said. Morocco, however, has proved invulnerable to such attempts.
In another attempt to vary its strategies in Morocco, ISIS has also recruited minor girls to conduct acts of terrorism. Several cells have been discovered and dismantled all over Morocco in locations such as Kenitra, Sidi Sliman, Sale, Tangier, Oulad Teima, Zagora.
Recently in Sidi Taibi, a town near Kenitra, a female cell containing ten minor members was broken up. According to El Khiyame, the girls displayed no signs of distress at being apprehended because of “extreme brain-washing.”
Edited by Constance Guindon
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Rabat – In a recent survey on consumption and household spending, The High Commission for Planning (HCP) revealed a worrying escalation in the country’s income gap.
Survey results have revealed that Top 10 % of Morocco’s Richest Households Spend 105 Times More on Leisure and 44 Times More on traveling Than Poorest Moroccans.
The survey, conducted on 16,000 households reveals that top wealthiest famlies spend 3.5% of their annual budget on leisure as compared to 0.4% for the poorest Moroccans. These families also spend 24% less on education, and communication and 44% less on the luxury of traveling.
Moroccan dietary choices were also made a part of the survey, highlighting some interesting differences. Reportedly, Moroccans prefer high protein foods such as meat, fish, eggs, and dairy to foods high in calories.
This section of the survey went on to note an interesting difference in budgetary allotment for food expenditure. Families living in rural areas were found to have devoted 47.3% of the household budget to food expenditure, as compared to 33.3% in urban areas.
On a positive note, the survey also reveals that the standard of living in Morocco has almost doubled between 2001 and 2014, increasing from MAD 8,300 to MAD 15,900.
The survey credits this increase to spending more on education, culture, recreation, transportation, hygiene and medical care, especially among urban households. It’s important to note, however, that there are still 1.6 million Moroccans who suffer from abject poverty with a further 4.2 million considered vulnerable.
Edited by Constance Guindon
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Fez – Morocco’s Interior Minister Mohammed Hassad said an investigation on the events regarding the death of Mohsin Fikri, a fish vendor who died in a trash compactor while trying to save his products, is currently underway.
“We cannot accept officials acting in haste, anger or in conditions that do not respect people’s rights,” said Hassad, while promising due process for those responsible for the gruesome incident.
Hassad also noted that the deceased and another man left the port with a car full of swordfish, which is illegal to fish. Both men had not been stopped at a police checkpoint, even though the prosecutor had been notified of the situation and an order to confiscate the fish had been issued.
“Those who took the decision to destroy the fish and attack the impacter must answer to the public prosecutor,” the minister said.
Hassad emphasized that the results of the investigations will be released soon, adding that “we can not consider the state directly responsible for Fikri’s death, but it is imperative that we identify the mistakes that were made and punish the perpetrators.”
Previously, King Mohammed VI asked for a thorough investigation to charge all those found responsible for the incident to be held as an example for any public official who does not fulfill his duties to the best of his or her abilities.
Following the tragic incident, several protests erupted around Morocco on Sunday evening, demanding governmental accountability.
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Fez — Education First, a world leader in international education, ranked Morocco as the top MENA country with the best English proficiency and 44th in the world.
The ranking sorts out countries in zones according to their mastery of English skills, ranging from very high to very low.
The Netherlands came first in the ranking, which studied 72 countries around the world, followed by Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Singapore. The level of English proficiency in these countries was considered ‘’Very High.’’
Morocco has shown advancement in English skills since it has moved from “Very Low” to “Low” ranking, going as far as outperforming countries where the second language is English.
The index also indicated that Moroccan women are more skillful in English (52.52 percent) than their male counterparts (48.06 percent).
This ranking confirms Moroccans’ improvement in English proficiency. Another ranking published by the same index showed that Morocco has recorded the second highest rate of improvement in English proficiency worldwide.
This improvement was achieved due to the widespread use of the Internet, which 56.8 percent of Moroccans have access to, according to 2013 World Bank statistics. Moroccans are becoming more and more aware of the importance of English in giving access to better job opportunities.
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Fez – Amina Sondok, a cashier at the Auchan Market in France, has filed a law suit against her employer for being denied access to a rest room while working her shift, a decision which allegedly led her to miscarry.
On November 22, the 23-year-old Moroccan woman felt pain in her stomach and asked her managers to go to the rest room several times over a three-hour span but was denied each time. Later she felt blood in her underwear and was rushed to the rest room, but it was too late.
Once paramedics arrived on scene, Sondok was taken to the nearest hospital where her case was diagnosed and a miscarriage was declared.
Fausse couche en caisse à Auchan City – @AfpLille à lire et à partager – Bande sonore /vidéo disponible pic.twitter.com/JXg6S53rkg
— CGT TOURCOING – U.L. (@CGTourcoing) December 24, 2016
“I warned my officials and I asked them several times to go to the toilet, but no one allowed me to,” Sondok said.
Adding insult to injury, Sondok has also been obliged to file a formal complaint with The General Confederation of Labour in France to be granted the pay she is owed for the days of work she missed recovering from the miscarriage.
The victim has filed a law suit against Auchan asking police to open an investigation on the matter. A spokesperson for Auchan, François Cathalifaud, has said that “Sondok did not ask for a break and Unions are using her case to their advantages.”
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Rabat – The Supreme Judicial Council’s spokesperson in Iraq, Abdulsatar Bayrakdar, has announced that Iraq’s Central Criminal Court confirmed a confession of ISIS recruitment by an internationally wanted Moroccan national.
The Moroccan national, who speaks English, French, and Spanish, confessed that he was in charge of communication to recruit foreign ISIS fighters using Skype and previously occupied different important positions as a manager at Idlib and the White Hill Port borders in Syria. He also worked in the Office of Foreign Affairs processing and purchasing weapons from the Free Army for the ISIS organization.
The Moroccan national entered Syria illegally through Turkey and was caught by Iraqi security forces in cooperation with the central criminal court when he moved to Iraq.
Some ISIS sleeper cells are still operating brazen attacks in Iraq and police forces are undergoing operations to eliminate resistant pockets. On May 2, ISIS militants claimed responsibility for attacking a village near Baghdad and killing 21 people, and additional armed conflicts caused 68 civilian fatalities in April.
Still, the region is noticing substantial stabilization after declaring the defeat of ISIS in December.
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Rabat – Al Hoceima has received thousands of tourists, with 23 percent more tourists visiting this winter, between January and March 2018, than visited last winter, the Regional Tourism Commission has reported.
According to the report, 5,564 tourists visited rated tourist establishments during the three month period, an increase from 4,539 in the same period last year.
The steadily rising number of international tourists reached 1,005 in January to March, a 39 percent growth, while the number of domestic tourists reached 4,559, a 19 percent increase, according to the same source.
The report showed that tourists spend an average of two nights by the end of March. Rated tourist establishments recorded 10,839 overnights by the end of March compared to 7,219 overnights last year, an occupancy rate increase from 7 to 11 percent.
Spain tops the list of international tourists with 271 visitors, followed by the French (215 tourists), the Dutch (98 tourists), the Germans (91 tourists), the Belgians, the Americans, and the British.
The report also pointed out that four-star hotels are the top choice of tourists during this period, receiving 2,463 tourists, followed by 3-star hotels (1,189 tourists), two-star hotels (817 tourists), one-star hotels (589 tourists) and finally touristic residences (463 tourists).
In March, the number of tourists who visited Al-Hoceima (1,963) increased by 25 percent, spending 4,413 nights in hotels, compared to the arrival of 1,571 tourists in the same period last year, increasing the occupancy rate to 12 percent.
Al Hoceima depends on tourists, especially in the summer, as they create job opportunities and contribute to its local economic growth.
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Fez – The UN will celebrate its International Day under the theme ‘’UN Peacekeepers: 70 Years of Service and Sacrifice” on June 1, to pay tribute to seven Moroccans among the peacekeepers who died during peacekeeping operations in 2017.
The celebration will pay tribute to more than 3,700 selfless peacekeepers who have heroically sacrificed their lives under the UN flag since 1948, including 129 who died last year. The tribute includes a series of photographs and documents under the title “Thank you Morocco for your service and sacrifice.”
The event will take place at UN headquarters in New York, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres presiding over the ceremony. The secretary-general will lay a wreath for the fallen peacekeepers and posthumously honor them with the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal to acknowledge their sacrifice and bravery bringing peace to different parts in the world.
The list of Moroccan peacekeepers includes Hicham EL Aouzi, Mohamed El Azzabi, M’bark Azyz, Abdeljalil Ez-Zaitouni, Hicham Amahrit, Zaid Kabouz, and Mohamed Ait Said, who died representing the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA ).
“We express our gratitude more than one million men and women who have served under the UN flag, saving countless lives. We honour more than 3,700 blue helmets who have paid the ultimate price over the past seven decades. And we pay tribute to the 14 peacekeeping missions working around the clock to protect people and advance the cause of peace,” Guterres said in a message expressing solidarity with families of dead soldiers on Saturday.
Recently, Guterres also expressed deep condolences to Morocco over the death of Master Corporal Rachid Abarki on April 24 in the Central African Republic:
“…My sincere condolences for this painful loss and express my gratitude for the contribution of Master Corporal Abarki to our peace action in the Central African Republic,” Guterres wrote in a letter to Morocco’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Omar Hilale.
Morocco is the 14th largest contributor of uniformed personnel to UN peacekeeping operations with more than 1,600 military and police personnel serving peace in the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
UN peacekeeping includes more than 100,000 blue helmets, including police and civilian personnel from 124 member states who are helping to navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace in 14 peacekeeping operations around the world
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Rabat – The report also shows that 31% of public service users have paid a bribe, while 74 % think the government is doing a bad job of tackling corruption.
The survey reveals, however, that 49 % think that ordinary citizens can make a difference in the fight against corruption.
The survey, which is the largest and the most detailed in the world, covered 47,000 African citizens from 35 different African countries, including 1,200 Moroccans. The intent was to highlight the attitudes and experiences of bribery and corruption in their countries.
The report indicates that Moroccans think bribery is most prevalent among members of Parliament with 41% saying that MPs receive bribes. MPs were closely followed by the Prime Minister at 39 %, Local government officials at 38%, and Government officials at 37%.
Outside politics, 28% said that Business Executives receive bribes, judges and traditional leaders came in at 26%, police at 24%, and Government Organizations 22%. Religious leaders had the lowest rate at only 11%.
In terms of Public service users, 32 % have paid a bribe to the health service, and 31 % to police, while the lowest percentage was recorded in Public schools ( 6%).
The highest rates of bribery in the African continent were recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (80%), followed by Liberia (53%), and Sierra Leone (52%). The lowest rates were recorded in Mauritius (5%), Botswana (7%) and Cape Verde (8%)
Even though 49% think that ordinary people can make a difference in fighting it, the report’s key findings indicate that corruption in Africa is on the rise. The statistics through the integrity of public officials into doubt, despite government efforts to change the trend.
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