Rabat Council Members Criticize Neighborhood Demolitions and Relocations

The demolition operation in Douar El Askar should have been accompanied by on-site relocation, taking into account the economic and social conditions of the inhabitants, in order to avoid reproducing past experiences where hundreds of slum dwellers were displaced dozens of kilometers from their original neighborhoods, thus transforming these new cities into centers of unemployment, school dropout and crime, stressed the members of the Democratic Left Federation within the Rabat municipal council in a statement.

According to their explanations, the authorities of the city of Rabat have still not revealed the fate reserved for the land of Douar El Askar, while rumors suggest its transformation into a golf course, "which would, according to them, constitute a major urban scandal in the capital." A development plan for the capital Rabat has recently been published. "The development plan for the city of Rabat, published in the Official Bulletin dated February 20, 2025, gives this area (ZP1) a special status that grants broad powers to a commission chaired by the Wali of the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra region, in order to approve the urban plans in this sector," the elected officials indicated.

"The demands made by the local authorities to the inhabitants of the Saniat Gharbia neighborhood and certain areas of the Océan neighborhood to evacuate their homes are not based on any legal basis, especially since most of the inhabitants hold property and land conservation documents, in the absence of any decree of public utility that could justify an expropriation, which constitutes a violation of the constitutional principle of the right to private property," these councilors estimated, questioning the true beneficiary of this operation.

According to the Federation, the widening of several avenues in Rabat and the expropriation operations that accompany them could be justified in some cases, but they remain unjustified and incomprehensible in many other situations, particularly concerning Mohammed VI Avenue, which already has three lanes in each direction on the majority of its part. This is why it calls on the public authorities of the city of Rabat "to provide sufficient clarifications on the planned projects in Douar El Askar, in the Océan neighborhood, as well as in the other areas that have undergone demolitions, and to clearly reveal the identity of the real beneficiaries of this operation."

It also calls for "the immediate cessation of demolition and relocation operations, and the strict respect of the laws in force, first and foremost the Moroccan Constitution which protects private property in the absence of any decree establishing a public utility."