Destruction, fires, gunshots – and then the first deaths. On the evening of Wednesday, October 1, two young people were killed by gendarmes in the city of Leqliaa, near Agadir. According to authorities, quoted by the Maghreb Arabe Presse news agency, the law enforcement officers acted in “legitimate self-defense” to “repel an attack and an assault carried out by groups of individuals against the premises of the territorial brigade, in an attempt to seize ammunition, equipment, and service weapons belonging to the Royal Gendarmerie.”

That version was partially disputed by a local representative of the Gen Z 212 group, which launched the protest movement. He claimed that protesters, angered by the law enforcement crackdown, did indeed go to the brigade, which became the target of many thrown projectiles, but did not attempt to break in by force.

The deaths, along with several injuries, occurred amid a surge in violence as gatherings involving groups of Moroccan youth have continued daily since Saturday, September 27, in several cities. In Salé, a town bordering the capital Rabat, masked youths were filmed on Wednesday night jumping onto abandoned police cars. Elsewhere in Morocco, vehicles were set on fire and government offices, banks and shops were vandalized.

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