Young Moroccans protest for 7th day in a row

RABAT - Youth-led protests demanding reforms to public healthcare and education took place on Friday in several Moroccan cities for a seventh day in a row, an AFP journalist and local media reported.

The protests, called by the online-based GenZ 212 group whose organisers remain unknown, also called on the kingdom's premier to resign.

"Our voices will not be silenced," read a sign held by a protester in Rabat, the Moroccan capital where dozens of people gathered in front of parliament.

Other rallies took place in Agadir, Casablanca, and Tangier, according to AFP reporters and local media.

Demonstrators also called for the resignation of Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, whose tenure ends next year.

The rallies across the usually stable country have been fuelled by anger over social inequality, particularly following reports last month of the deaths of eight pregnant women at a public hospital in the city of Agadir.

GenZ 212 was founded on the Discord online messaging platform in mid-September, its name a reference to people born between the late 1990s and early 2010s, and to Morocco's telephone country code, 212.

It is not clear who leads the group, which has reached nearly 170,000 users on Discord.
On Friday, it renewed appeals to remain "entirely peaceful and reject any form of violence, rioting, or destruction of public and private property".

GenZ 212 also urged protesters to wear black "as a sign of mourning for the injured and the dead" after three people were killed Wednesday.

Authorities have said the three had attempted to storm a law enforcement station near Agadir.

While there have been cases of violence and vandalism, protests on Thursday and Friday were largely peaceful, according to an AFP journalist and media reports.

Yasser, 20, said he was demonstrating in Rabat "against corruption and for reform of education and hospitals", adding that he was "experiencing difficulties at university because the level of education I received in high school was not good".

In a post addressed to King Mohammed VI earlier Friday, the group had called for the government's dismissal but in a later statement it said the message had not been issued in its "final" form, without elaborating.

The European Union said Friday that it recognised "the importance of youth participation in public life" and called on "all parties involved to keep calm".