Rabat – On July 11, an 11-year-old boy was found dead near the former Education Academy in Meknes. The child had been choked with an electric cable after being raped; his naked body showed traces of sexual violence.
Mohammed al-Amiri, the father of the victim, said that his son left their home on the evening of July 9 and never came home. After searching for him in vain, the father informed the police of his son’s disappearance.
He received news of his son’s death on his way to hand the police a photo of him.
Shocked by the incident, several neighbors expressed their outrage. In a video posted on Youtube, one of the neighbors stated, “we’re living in a jungle; all kinds of drugs including cocaine are sold in our neighborhood.”
Another neighbor, with tears in her eyes, expressed her concern for all the children of the Beni Mohamed neighborhood. “All our children are in danger; our kids, teenagers, adults, boys, and girls are all using drugs,” she shakingly added.
She also appealed to officials and the police forces to increase police patrols in the neighborhood.
Other women stressed the devastating effect of drug-dealing and drug-use among the neighborhood’s youth. “Everytime I leave the house to work, I keep imagining my son being attacked or manipulated into taking drugs,” one of the women added.
