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In Rabat, Morocco, hundreds of protesters demanded badly needed public sector jobs to help alleviate high unemployment. They also want social inequality and government corruption issues addressed.
Similar anger riled protesters in Algeria, Yemen and elsewhere over unaffordable food and fuel prices as well as shocking levels of extreme poverty, unemployment and state repression.
Occupied Iraq is now affected, demonstrations occurring in numerous cities across the country. Earlier, Hamza protesters stormed government buildings and a police station over political corruption, repressive occupation, and shortages of power, food and jobs. The UAE's The National quoted organizer Abu Ali saying:
"There will be a revolution of the hungry and jobless in Iraq, just as there was in Egypt. It was a march by the unemployed, by those who have lost hope and who see (Prime Minister) Nouri al Maliki and the new government becoming another dictatorship."
On February 10, protests occurred in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Karbala, Diwaniyah, Kut, Ramadi, Samawah and Amara. In Sadr City, they were over public corruption, poverty, unemployment, and lack of social services. In Karbala, a sign said:
"We have nothing. We need everything. Solution: Set ourselves on fire," referring to Tunisia's Mohammed Bouazizi, an unemployed graduate working as a vegetable seller who self-immolated in protest over police confiscating his merchandise for operating without a permit he couldn't get.
Najaf farmers demanded help they haven't gotten. Basra protesters want changes in food ration policies leaving families unable to afford high prices. Others in Baghdad called for ending judicial corruption and prisoner abuse, including torture in Iraqi prisons. In Karbala, the lawyers' guild head mocked inadequate funds replacing rations for cooking oil, rice, flour and sugar.
Near Baghdad's Green Zone, placards read, "Where are your electoral promises, food rations and basic services?" Others said "Tahrir Square Two." Reuters reported that:
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