Nomadic Herders Clash with Farmers in El Jadida Amid Grazing Dispute

According to the daily Al Massae, the herders, who arrived several weeks ago in the Doukkala-Abda region, are monitoring their livestock aboard 4x4 vehicles. They were grazing their herds, about 3,000 head of sheep and goats, without authorization. They are increasingly inviting themselves onto parcels belonging to the private domain, which is likely to generate brutal confrontations with the farmer-operators.

These herders would take advantage of the confinement of local populations and the state of health emergency to extend their grazing area and graze their livestock free of charge on private land, it is reported. For fear of avoiding the sabotage of the drip irrigation systems set up on these estates, the owners of the plots are said to have intervened to stop the intruders.

During the confrontation, the farmers who tried to slow down the advance of the herders were victims of several physical assaults. In the aftermath, a young man in his thirties, suffering from multiple fractures, was taken to the Mohammed VI University Hospital in El Jadida. Another farmer, violently hit by a 4x4 vehicle belonging to one of the herders, is suffering from a double fracture in the lower limbs, while a father and his son were injured with a knife.

Alerted, the local authorities and the Royal Gendarmerie of Zemamra went to the scene to make the usual findings, pending the establishment of the exact circumstances of the incident to transmit the file to the Court of First Instance of Sidi Benour. According to the same daily, multiple calls for help have been launched by the farmers to the Royal Gendarmerie, for protection against this illegitimate intrusion on their territories.