Moroccan military is among the strongest military powers in North Africa, according to the Military Strength Ranking. The latter indicates that the Kingdom relies on a mix of old and new equipment and employs several hundred thousand active and reserve personnel on call.
Spanish consulates in Morocco issued 220,929 visas last year, a particularly significant increase compared to 2017. According to data relayed by Spanish news agency EFE, Morocco was the third country in the world to receive Spanish visas, after Russia and China in 2018. With the exception of public holidays and weekends, Spanish consulates issued an average of 1,000 visas per day. In Morocco, Spain and France are the two countries that have granted the most Schengen visas : In 2017, France
In 2017, Morocco was one of the African countries that seized the biggest amounts of Cannabis resin, a drug that is largly produced in the country, according to the UN International Narcotics Control Board.
Brahim Ghali is planning to get «reelected» as leader of the Polisario. The committee in charge of preparing for the Front’s upcoming congress is composed of influential members from Ghali’s tribe, Rguibates.
The UN envoy for Western Sahara Horst Köhler is to chair the second Western Sahara round-table in the second half of March, bringing Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the Polisario together in Geneva, Switzerland. The announcement was made by the UN Secretary-General’s Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, during a press briefing held Tuesday, March the 5th. Speaking to reporters, Dujarric said that «the Personal Envoy, Mr. [Horst] Köhler, has plans to convene a
Ajax Amsterdam’s Moroccan international player Hakim Ziyech has contributed significantly to his team’s victory, scoring a goal against Real Madrid. In a Champions League match, held Wednesday, Ziyech scored for Ajax seven minutes after the start of the game. The other three goals that secured Ajax’s victory were scored by David Neres, Dusan Tadic and Lasse Schone. Madrid’s goal was scored by Marco Asensio 70 minutes after the start of the match.
The Amsterdam police are currently looking for a 30-year-old Moroccan national who has scammed several Moroccan families in the Netherlands, said Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws on Tuesday. The suspect has presented himself as a successful businessman and as an ideal husband to the daughters of these families. Using several names, the man asked for money to host engagement parties or for his business, scamming several people, the same source said. The Dutch police called the scammed
The European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs committee rejected, Monday in Brussels, an amendment on Western Sahara submitted by the Greens–European Free Alliance, a political group in the European Parliament containing green, regionalist and left-wing nationalist political parties. The Greens group wanted to amend the Neighborhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument, examined currently by the EU Foreign Affairs Committee. In their amendment, the Greens wanted to
A Birmingham school that offered classes on the LGBT community for its students has removed the lessons from its curriculum after Muslim parents signed a petition against it. According to British newspaper the Guardian, the Parkfield School wrote in a letter addressed to parents that it will not «be delivering any No Outsiders lessons (the classes in question) in [their] long-term year curriculum plan, as this half term has already been blocked for religious
Commenting on Israel’s plan to demand compensation for assets left behind by Jews in Arab countries in 1948, the president of the Canadian Sephardi Federation recalled that Moroccan Jews did not flee the Kingdom. To Avraham Elarar, Jews in Morocco were citizens and not refugees.