Escalation in Ceuta: Attack on military patrol, arson at migrant camps
In Ceuta, conflicts between residents and migrants are intensifying: camps are set on fire, an army patrol comes under ambush.
Violence and counter-attacks: Ceuta on the brink of control
The situation in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta has become dramatically serious according to reporting by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Local residents are attacking migrant camps, Moroccans have ambushed a military patrol – and the roughly 9,000 security forces on the ground are increasingly caught between the two sides.
On Thursday evening, demonstrators blocked trucks belonging to the Red Cross, which were supposed to deliver food to Trampolín Beach, where hundreds of Moroccans had set up an emergency camp. Shouting "The Red Cross is a mafia" and "Out with the invaders", some demonstrators broke through the barriers despite a heavy police presence and set fire to improvised shelters as well as migrants' belongings.
The local human rights organisation Elín described the situation to the newspaper: "Masked people are running through the streets with baseball bats. Hundreds are trying to attack migrants. They are destroying their tents and their possessions." Calls on the internet are circulating for the formation of citizen patrols.
German doctor Leon van Bömmel from the aid organisation Mission Lifeline reported to the F.A.Z. from Ceuta that he had observed young Spanish people chasing injured migrants through the streets. At the edge of a demonstration with more than 2,000 participants on Wednesday evening, a Moroccan on crutches was approached by the crowd. The head of the Spanish NGO "Médicos del Mundo" was insulted as a "traitor". Migrants also told van Bömmel that Spanish people had threatened them in their overnight camps with pistols and machetes. "We are seeing a great many injuries, infections, fractures and chronic illnesses that have remained untreated for weeks", he said.
In parallel, an unarmed military patrol in the Benzú district came under what appeared to be a prepared ambush in the early hours of Thursday morning. Several dozen men – according to media reports, Moroccans – surrounded an unarmoured military vehicle near the beach and pelted it with stones. The four soldiers had to flee, and one was injured, according to the general staff. Police later arrested twelve suspected attackers. The newspaper ABC reported, citing police sources, that there was suspicion that radical individuals had entered Ceuta from Morocco to stir up unrest. Calls were circulating on social media, according to the report, urging Spanish "occupiers" to be driven out of the city, which Morocco claims territorially.
Crisis coordinator Ángel Víctor Torres called for non-violence and emphasised that neither Red Cross volunteers nor journalists should be threatened. Attorney General Teresa Peramato described the situation during a visit to Ceuta as "serious" and pointed to 16 sexual offences since the end of July, whose victims are predominantly underage migrant girls. Robberies and attacks on security forces have also increased.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska accused the right-wing opposition parties PP and Vox on Friday of stoking "hatred" in Ceuta. According to government figures, approximately 5,000 migrants are still present in the enclave; PP and Vox estimate the number to be as high as 20,000. A "solidarity armada" of 60 ships to Ceuta is scheduled for this Saturday.
Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung