The gang rape of a minor at a crowded festival shocks Morocco

Mohamed (a fictitious name) is 13 years old and lives in a town in the province of Youssoufia, 200 miles south of Rabat, in the deep interior of Morocco. Orphaned of his father, he makes a living by selling bags and parking cars at markets to help his mother, who is disabled and undergoing psychiatric treatment. Life has not smiled on Mohamed — nor on the thousands of street children in the Maghreb country who often cling to the underside of an international truck bound for a ferry to Europe, or swim through storms toward the breakwaters of the Spanish exclave cities of Ceuta and Melilla.

Mohamed took advantage of the moussem (popular festival) of Moulay Abdallah Amghar festival in the coastal city of Al Jadida (74 miles north of Youssoufia) to try to earn some extra money and witness one of Morocco’s largest celebrations, which until last weekend had attracted nearly half a million people over the course of a week. Once the echo of the rifle shots from the riders of the traditional tabouridas (a traditional show of Moroccan horsemanship), had faded, Moroccans were shocked by the news of the gang rape of Mohamed, who was drugged and sexually assaulted last Thursday by more than a dozen young men from the region.

The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH), one of the most active civil society NGOs, has documented the horrific crime committed against the young man from Youssoufia in a complaint addressed to the Attorny General’s Office. Moroccan police have already made an arrest and identified the suspects, the digital portal Hesspres reported Tuesday. In a state of shock, with his eyes lost in space, according to witnesses cited by the local press, Mohamed tried to return to his city by bus.

Other passengers noticed that his condition was deteriorating during the trip and alerted the Gendarmerie upon arrival, who immediately transferred the boy to the Lala Hasma Provincial Hospital in the city. However, given the seriousness of his diagnosis, forensic doctors simply confirmed the rape and ordered that he be taken to the Mohamed VI University Hospital in Marrakech, the southern capital of the country located about 62 miles away, for more detailed testing.

He could barely move or speak. His condition was critical, with severe behavioral changes. Mohamed, who is undergoing an extensive psychological evaluation, provided the security forces with a description and address of some of his attackers, whom he knew.

Hamid Raudi, coordinator of the Youssoufia branch of the AMDH, told the online newspaper Yabibladi that the attackers raped the boy after drugging him. They took turns abusing him as he lay unconscious in a tent. “His situation is desperate,” the activist said after speaking with the victim’s family, who alerted the NGO to the events. “The scene we saw at the hospital was extremely painful,” Raudi revealed. “Any negligence or delay in addressing the case will be interpreted as a betrayal of the victim, his family, and society as a whole.”

In a country like Morocco, where large festivals take place every summer — traditional and religious, such as the moussems, or popular and secular, such as the Gnaoua Music Festival in Essaouira or the Jazz Festival in Tangier — public opinion is now questioning on social media whether the safety of minors is sufficiently guaranteed.

Police investigations are ongoing, while the case of the gang rape of the minor has reopened the debate on the reintroduction of the death penalty, provided for in the current Penal Code but under a de facto moratorium since 1993, when the last execution took place in the country. The tragedy of the moussem in El Jadida has shaken the conscience of many Moroccans, still reeling from previous sexual assaults on minors in that same city in 2023 and in Tangier in 2020.

Starting point for migrant minors

The inland provinces of central and southern Morocco are traditional departure points for minors and young irregular migrants seeking a future in Europe. Several of them, originally from the El Jadida region, have drowned while trying to swim to the Tarajal and Benzú breakwaters, which mark the southern and western borders of Spain, according to El Faro de Ceuta.

On the night of August 15, the Civil Guard and Moroccan police recorded the attempts of around 300 people who tried to swim to Spanish territory. Migratory pressure has been increasing this summer, with peaks such as that of the last Sunday in July, when 57 minors arrived. In the first half of August, another 59 risked their lives at sea to enter.

Last January, the body of 27-year-old A.M. was delivered to his family in a hearse for burial in El Jadida. He was the eldest of six siblings.

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