The Moroccan community in Canada is urging the Moroccan government to “change” its seemingly indifferent attitude towards the Fijian incidents and to show additional support to the farmers raised by the “Algerian provocations”.
Dozens of protesters gathered in the town of Figueroa in front of the Moroccan consulate in Montreal on Friday against the latest developments in El Arja, a region on the Algerian-Moroccan border.
While holding up posters in favor of the peasants and the city of Fijian, the protesters urged civil and human rights organizations to support the demands of the Fijian people, especially the farmers of El Arja, who must defend their history and their laws and the right to use their land. ”
In a statement, a community of Moroccans in the city of Fikuik in Canada said: “Fikuik has followed with enthusiasm the dangerous and painful events known in our oasis in recent days, especially in the region of El Arja.
They called on the Moroccan and Algerian authorities to reconsider “their practices on the ground, taking into account the rights of the citizens of the city on their lands and properties”.
The report and the protest come amid growing fears of a resurgence of the 1963 regional conflict between Morocco and Algeria.
At the end of last week, Algeria issued a final warning to Moroccan farmers to leave their fields in El Arja – an area inside Algeria’s borders, according to the 1972 brokerage agreement signed between the two countries. – by March 18.
With no official response from Morocco to the deadline for Algerian farmers to leave their land, families in the El Arja region have been arbitrarily banned from working in their fields, after spending years trying to transform arid lands in green paradise. », According to the Moroccan community in Canada.
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He added: “This event reminds us today of what happened in the mid-1970s when a key agricultural land was taken over, and today we clearly express our concern for the fate and the future of the remaining land in the town of Fikuik. . “
The demonstrators reaffirmed their “total and unconditional solidarity” with the Fijian people, in particular with the peasants of El Arja, in a complex and worrying situation.
Amid the chaotic and inflamed situation, reactions to the perceived “silence” by Moko authorities over the Fijian incidents have been mixed.
Among the commentators and online commentators, some agree – sometimes admirably – in the face of vain provocations and speak of the control of Morocco. From the Algerian regime Time will see the legal storms it faces at home. Instead of inserting Algeria into its most dangerous “hijack forecasting policy”, Rabat is responsibly choosing to resolve the crisis through diplomatic means.
Others, meanwhile Moroccan authorities He cared little for the livelihoods of Moroccan citizens who had been disrupted by the “bogus” Algerian regime and had been associated with their “ancestral domains” for decades and centuries. According to the camp, Algiers is more likely to double its demands as this would explain Morocco’s diplomatic response as indifferent or afraid to engage.
Third, talks are underway between Rabat and Algiers to avoid dragging Africa’s most powerful fighters into a conflict that could have catastrophic consequences for the Maghreb and Sahel regions. According to them, Algeria and Morocco can agree to compensatory conditions for farmers instead of pushing the Magreb into a catastrophic conflict over the livelihoods of a few dozen families.
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