Tangier Faces Cemetery Crisis as Residents Demand Action on Burial Space Shortage

The people of Tangier are sounding the alarm over the saturation of the main Sidi Amar and Al Moujahidin cemeteries, as well as other small neighborhood cemeteries. The local authorities and elected officials of the city have been struggling for years to provide a sustainable solution to this problem. In 2008, they had announced the creation of four new cemeteries of 50 hectares each in the four districts of the city (Tanger Ville, Souani, Mghogha and Beni Makada), and another of 20 hectares in the commune of Ksar Sghir. But due to lack of funding, these projects never materialized.

In 2011, the Tangier municipal council had authorized the construction of a 15-hectare cemetery in the Rahrah region. Unfortunately, this project was also abandoned due to the rocky terrain chosen. Since then, the city’s authorities and elected officials have been limited to statements of intent to create cemeteries, without being able to materialize them, leaving the residents to continue burying their deceased in inappropriate conditions or transferring them to the cemeteries of other cities like Asilah.

"The issue of cemeteries in Tangier is not a new question. For years, this issue has been urgent. While the city once had enough spaces and land dedicated to burials, it is now facing an acute crisis due to the takeover of large real estate projects on the lands surrounding the city," explained Bilal Akouh, a Tangier city councilor on the Achkayn website.

He added: "Tangier once gave the cemeteries the best locations in a spirit of ’respect for the deceased’. We can cite in this regard the Al Moujahidin, Charf, Marchan, and Sidi Omar cemeteries. However, with urban development and the expansion of the city in all directions, the notion of land ownership has taken on a new dimension, considered as a source of wealth, far from the old conception based on donations and bequests from individuals or communities."