RABAT: Nearly 80 police officers were injured in two days of clashes with protesters in Morocco’s restive Rif region, an official said on Wednesday, although the number of demonstrators hurt was unknown.

Around 50 members of the security forces were hurt on Monday in the northern city of Al Hoceima, most of them struck by stones, a high-ranking interior ministry official said. On Tuesday, 29 police officers were injured during fresh clashes in the neighbouring town of Imzouren, the same source said, adding that they were all later released from hospital.

The Rif region has been rocked by unrest since a fishmonger was crushed to death in a rubbish truck in October as he tried to retrieve swordfish confiscated for being caught out of season.

In the eight months since then, demands for justice and anger over the region’s perceived marginalisation snowballed into a grass-roots movement centred on Al Hoceima.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2017