Africa News

Moroccan protester dies after setting himself on fire

Jan 24, 2012, 14:50 GMT

Casablanca, Morocco - A Moroccan who set himself on fire last week in protest at graduate unemployment died Tuesday in Casablanca, hospital sources said.

Abdelouahab Zaidoun belonged to a group of protesters who had occupied the terrace of an Education Ministry building in the capital Rabat, threatening to set themselves on fire if they were not given jobs in the public sector.

Zaidoun was taken for treatment to Casablanca. He had burns on more than half of his body.

Another member of the same group who also set himself alight was doing well, the sources said.

Morocco has seen around a dozen similar protests over the past six years.

Self-immolation has become an increasingly popular form of protest in North Africa since the death of a Tunisian who set himself on fire sparked the Arab Spring protests.

Morocco has an official unemployment rate of about 8 per cent, but it surpasses 15 per cent among university graduates, who have formed several associations to defend their right to employment.

The two men who were hospitalized in Casablanca belonged to the National Association of Unemployed Graduates (ANDC), which has more than 1,000 members.