Fact Check: Spain Not Paying Morocco 100 Million Euros for Rif War Compensation

"Spain will pay Morocco 100 million euros for the Rif War, waged more than 90 years ago. The government [...] has agreed to grant 2,000 euros to the great-grandchildren/great-great-grandchildren of the Moroccans who fought against Spain between 1921 and 1927," the message circulating on WhatsApp announces, specifying that the information "will be made official by an act in which Spain will apologize to Morocco."

This is not the case, according to RTVE, which explains that there is currently no provision made by Spain to compensate Morocco for the Rif War. Several political parties represented in the Spanish parliament have repeatedly called on the government to recognize its responsibility in the Rif War (1921-1927). But their proposals have not progressed to date, the same source indicates. In 2021, these parties proposed two amendments to the draft law on democratic memory, which aimed to lead Spain to assume its responsibility and recognize the use of chemical weapons in this conflict.

The amendments also concern the reparation of damages "within the framework of international cooperation", "any individual compensation that could be claimed for the damages caused" and "compensation to the region [...] for the damages resulting from such attacks". But contrary to the message circulating on WhatsApp, none of these amendments to the law contain proposals for amounts. Moreover, these amendments were rejected by the Congress of Deputies on July 14, 2022.

A text very similar to the one circulating in recent times was found online and contains a link to a report from a digital media outlet broadcast in May 2011. For historian María Rosa de Madariaga (1937-2022), the Spanish and French forces used mustard gas during the Rif War, as evidenced by several articles published between 2004 and 2015. But successive Spanish governments have neither acknowledged nor denied this fact in recent years.