El Othmani : Creating jobs is the key to end the social unrest in the Rif

The Moroccan Prime Minister, Saadeddine El Othmani said on Monday that the social unrest taking place in the Rif region would only have an end when the employment crisis is solved, Anadolu news agency reported.

El Othmani indicated during the first meeting of the government-run Ministerial Committee for Employment held in Rabat to study the possible ways of developing the employment sector that : «The government must create enough jobs to prevent vulnerability and marginalization».

He insisted that «the government is looking for solutions to the unemployment problem…We want to facilitate the creation of jobs for young people». El Othmani also claimed that «despite the launch of several past initiatives, government efforts to reduce unemployment over the past decade have met with limited success».

For more that 10 months, the Rif region has witnessed a number or demonstrations. People took the streets to protest against marginalization, unemployment and social injustice. According to the same source, The High Commission for Planning announced that the national unemployment rate stood at 9.3 percent for the second quarter of this year to 9.1 percent in the same period last year.