Rabat – 8 July 2026
Families of Sahrawi political prisoners staged a protest on Wednesday outside Morocco’s General Delegation for Prison Administration and Reintegration in Rabat, calling for the immediate release of all Sahrawi political prisoners and urging the United Nations and the international community to intervene without delay amid what protesters described as an increasingly alarming humanitarian situation inside Moroccan prisons.
The demonstration brought together relatives of detainees, Sahrawi students from universities in Marrakesh, Agadir, and Tetouan, as well as Sahrawi human rights defenders. Participants carried banners and chanted slogans holding the Moroccan authorities responsible for the physical and psychological well-being of the detainees while demanding an end to what they described as ongoing violations of their fundamental rights.
The protest focused particularly on Sahrawi political prisoner Naâma Asfari, who, according to his family, entered the thirty-first consecutive day of an open-ended hunger strike. His relatives say the strike is a protest against his detention conditions and what they describe as persistent violations of his fundamental rights while in custody. Demonstrators warned that his health has reached a critical stage and called for immediate humanitarian and medical intervention to prevent irreversible consequences.
Participants stressed that continued disregard for the prisoners’ humanitarian and legal demands poses a direct threat to their lives. They appealed to United Nations bodies, international human rights organizations, and independent monitoring mechanisms to urgently investigate the prisoners’ conditions and ensure that their internationally recognized rights are protected.
At the conclusion of the protest, a statement issued on behalf of the families of the Gdeim Izik prisoners condemned what it described as serious human rights violations against detained Sahrawi civilians. The statement called for their immediate and unconditional release, arguing that they are imprisoned because of their political views and their advocacy for the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination.
The statement also appealed to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and the World Health Organization (WHO) to dispatch independent missions to assess the condition of the hunger-striking prisoners and monitor their health and detention conditions. It warned that any further delay in international intervention could have grave humanitarian consequences.
Protesters further urged Morocco to comply with its international human rights obligations and to implement recommendations issued by United Nations human rights mechanisms, including the Committee Against Torture and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, both of which have previously addressed the cases of members of the Gdeim Izik group.
The demonstration concluded with a renewed appeal to the international community, emphasizing that protecting the lives and fundamental rights of hunger-striking prisoners is an urgent humanitarian responsibility requiring immediate and effective international action.
