Nazha El Khalidi
She was detained on 21 August 2016 on Fem Lwad beach in the West of the Western Saharan capital by members of the Royal Moroccan police force and taken to a detention centre at its headquarters. She was at a protest, with her small camera trying to cover the events and the abuses committed by the Moroccan security forces against the Saharawi population, who demand respect for their legitimate right to self-determination.
‘They came to arrest the protestors who were there, but later they detained everyone including the journalist Nezha. They pushed them into a van, hitting them too. We realised the whole area was surrounded by security agents, as if they had come to arrest a group of terrorists’ recounts a witness. Continue reading
Brahim Saika, the young Saharawi trade unionist and leader of the Coordination of unemployed Saharawis, who was arbitrarily detained by the Moroccan forces on 1st April and died in detention on 15th April
22 July: Moroccan security services violently broke up demonstrations by human rights defenders, political activists, unemployed graduates and students, arbitrarily detaining some of the protestors. The protestors were demonstrating against the exclusion of Saharawi workers from a Moroccan government initiative to offer 500 jobs in the OCP company. 
The Moroccan authorities violently intervened in peaceful demonstrations, organised by young unemployed Saharawis on 11th and 16th June 2016 in El Aaiun and Smara. The demonstrators demanded access to their right to work and to freedom of expression.
The family of the late Saharawi President erected a tent to honour his death. This tent has been pulled down by the Moroccan authorities and those present paying their respects to their President have been violently attacked by the Moroccan authorities. Members of Adala UK in the Occupied Territories, explained that the tent was put up outside the house of Erguibi, one of Abdelaziz’s brothers, as an act of solidarity. Erguibi is a well-known lawyer and former prisoner of conscience who spent 16 years in the appalling conditions of the Secret Prision in Meguna where dozens of Saharawis are detained and tortured throughout their detention.
