Tragic Murder of French Tourist in Morocco
Concerns are growing that tensions may flare between French citizens living or visiting Morocco and locals, following one recent tragic death of an elderly French lady, reported on 12th December.
According to Moroccan media, a French tourist died from head injuries and her husband was hospitalized after being attacked by an “unstable” man near Rabat, a hospital official and Moroccan spokesman confirmed on the same day.
“The woman, born in 1940, is unfortunately deceased. She arrived at the hospital already dead,” Dr. Leila Derfoufi of Moulay Youssef Hospital told French newswire AFP.
“We are very disappointed that we could not save her.”
Her husband, also in his eighties, is in “stable condition”, the doctor added.
The couple was attacked by an “unstable person” on December 12th in the coastal town of Moulay Bousselham, not far from Morocco’s capital, authorities confirmed.
He “attacked the two tourists for no apparent reason with stones, causing them injuries of varying severities”, they said, adding that the man was arrested and taken into custody by the local police.
Although the attacker is mentally deranged, it is not the first time French citizens have had to deal with such acts of aggression. According to the government-friendly ‘Hespress’, in January, a 79-year-old French tourist was killed by an attacker with a knife in a market in the southern Moroccan city of Tiznit.
Furthermore, it is common in Morocco for vagabond criminals to feign mental illness to acquire doctor’s certificates which gives them carte blanche to carry out illegal acts without fear of prosecution.
Authorities will be on high alert after Morocco’s match against France on December 14th, aware that violence may be directed towards French citizens in Morocco during a week where both the world cup game and France’s foreign minister’s visit of Nasser Bourita are planned. The french official was sent by Emmanuel Macron in a bid to calm already high tensions between Paris and Rabat over immigration problems and France’s reluctance to support Morocco’s claim to sovereignty in Western Sahara.
France is Morocco’s second biggest trading partner (after Spain) and most important country in terms of tourist visitors.
