This week, the online magazine Yabiladi reported that the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs was advising French tourists against visiting southern Morocco.
The reason is said to be “the renewed threat from al-Qaeda against foreign interests in the Maghreb“.
In reality, when you go to the source, the Advice To Travellers, by country, on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, you see that the recommendations are much less alarmist than an internet journalist thought fit to indicate.
The map of “at risk” areas dates from July 2013. Here it is:
So first of all we see that only a fringe of Western Sahara, which is not at all touristy, is “formally inadvisable”. Most of the country is simply in green, and the ‘yellow’ zone, which covers the rest of the Western Sahara and a very thin strip on the border with Algeria, is simply considered to be an area where caution is advised.
The map is unfortunately not very precise, but if you count the pixels, you can see that this “band of reinforced vigilance” is just over three kilometres wide.
So we’re talking about areas that are, in any case, not recommended, off the beaten track, and – contrary to what you might think – very heavily controlled by the Moroccan army, which is determined to enforce the closure of the land borders with Algeria.
The area of Merzouga, one of the two most popular tourist destinations, is in the middle of the green zone (Merzouga is roughly in the middle of the vertical border zone, completely in the northern zone).
Similarly, M'hamid is well to the north of this band of heightened vigilance, in the green zone.
According to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, you can therefore travel in complete safety in the Moroccan desert.
On the other hand, the site reminds us that wild camping should be avoided:
“People travelling in motorhomes, particularly in the south near beaches, should avoid parking their vehicles in isolated areas, day or night (…) If they are unable to use the services of a campsite, they are advised to contact the Royal Gendarmerie”.
In fact, not one of the last-minute dispatches in 2013 concerned Morocco. It is in this section that we find the warnings, when the assessment of a risk is significantly modified. This section does, however, include a dispatch on the Sahel region (Mali, Mauritania, Niger)… but these are not the same countries, and the French aren’t that bad at geography to get confused.
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