On this Tuesday, May 16th, 2023, Morocco mourns the 20th anniversary of the deadliest attack in its history, as 45 people lost their lives and a hundred were injured. This horrific attack, attributed to al-Qaeda, remains forever in Moroccan memories and has shaped the way the kingdom has fought against terrorism ever since.
On May 16th, 2003, Islamist terrorism hit Morocco for the first time, and with amazement, the country discovered that all the suicide bombers were Moroccans from the popular neighborhoods of Sidi Moumen, the slums of Casablanca. The king, being a Muslim and commander of believers in Islam, had never witnessed such violence from the Moroccan Salafist movement, although very important in the country.
A reaction to the height of the shock
In a few months, authorities have arrested more than 2,000 people suspected of extremism and have sentenced hundreds of people to prison after trials that human rights NGOs have characterized as “abstract”.
The Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ) arrested thirteen men suspected of belonging to Daesh in several cities of the country. The BCIJ nicknamed the “Moroccan FBI”, has dismantled 90 terrorist cells and arrested more than 1,500 people in eight years, thanks to the two major anti-terrorism laws adopted in 2003 and 2015, which criminalize the joining of terrorist groups or the attempt to do so, as well as the apology and incitement to terrorism.