Security forces have been trying to prevent groups of young people from gathering since Saturday and AFP journalists saw police arrest dozens of people.

“The people want health, education and accountability,” the protesters chanted.

The protests, which also saw dozens of arrests on Saturday and Sunday, were initiated by a collective known as “GenZ 212”, whose founders remain unknown.

Hakim Sikouk, president of the Rabat branch of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH), said there were “more than 60 arrests in Rabat” and an unknown number in the cities of Casablanca, Agadir, Oujda and Meknes.

He said that the majority of those detained over the weekend had been released.

GenZ 212 had put out the call for protests days before on the platform Discord, citing issues such as “health, education and the fight against corruption”, while professing its “love for the homeland”.

The protests come at a time of popular discontent over Morocco’s social inequalities, which have disproportionately affected young people and women.

Recent reports of the deaths of eight pregnant women at a public hospital in Agadir have been a particular source of public outrage.