The bodies were found near the village Imlil.

https://today.rtl.lu/news/world/1281836.html

https://www.journaldemontreal.com/20...e-sud-du-maroc

Patrick

Apparently, their throats had been cut.

Very sad news indeed.

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

There have been news reports that the girls' throats were cut, also they were beheaded, but these are unconfirmed. It appears at the moment this was a sexual attack followed by the killing. Three suspects from Marrakech have been arrested.

More information on the thread in the Morocco forum at http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...und-dead-96838

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"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)

Without trying to be disrespectful to anyone on this forum or anyone reading this forum BUT:-

I feel everyone who has been educated, schooled seems to have a nicy nicy outlook on life and human behings and maybe only sees the world from the perspective of their mindset.

Remember in all walks of life the human has brains which work differently to each others. Some genetic and some transformed via damage whether it be physical or mental damage or other trauma like war and death.

So i feel that you all need to remember that people are very tribal, easily coerced and sometimes take a dim view of rich, happy tourists walking their paths with bright, naive, idealistic outlooks on their minds.

IN THIS INSTANCE after the 14th arrest has been made, i very much doubt it was some innocent random accidental sexual gone wrong killing, but an opportunist premeditated and organised killing which has backfired on the organisation as ever...Though in real terms served to great effect by alarming and scaring such other people from travlling such similar paths in future.

So please remember even the tourists who travel to Wales are met with indiffent thoughts and feelings by the indiginous locals. And we are allegedly civilised! So around the world everyone should be very much aware that often they are not welcome or disliked in their pursuits of roaming freely. Wasnt it Barcelona who ampage to rid the English from purchasing all the properties so the locals no find they have no where cheap to live and no community due to all this etc...This is worldwide with the Welsh burning English owed cottages due to same issue. South Africa now turning the tables on Blacks/Whites ownership of land...In my view all quite right and i personally am disgusted with humans, their mentalities and lack of respect or care for the indiginous people of each land....Seems capitalism has over ruled genuine care for countries and people etc..

With my name being Christian...I am perhaps more aware than most.Being Welsh and very Tribal i understand what its like to be Dictated and governed by a foreign country

Maybe we should be less diplomatic and politically correct in our public views and opinions of the world and say it as it is from here on in?

These tourists were killed as a part of an ongoing new Tribal Political statement from the Fed up disgruntled Muslims!!

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/29/w...ths/index.html

maybe read the other thread Tim linked above? this one was very early in the development of the information about the murders

I think my sway is peope are quick to implicate current issues as being something sexual gone wrong or some random act out of the norm despite the facts which are reverberating across the globe and effecting almost all populations.

This issue seems to be regligious driven though underlying is just prejudice conceived from years of oppression, resentment and possible jealousy

So my stance is for all peeps to OPEN their EYEs and try to see it how the people who perpitrate these "Acts of Terror" as the media like to suggest are in their mindsets and thus understand the realisties of Travelling in countries not of their own.

If for example you take 400,000 active Iraqi soldiers and tell them there are no jobs for them and no place for them in the new Iraq and they are unable to pay for their families. Then they leave the country for Syria and are coerced and given identities and given a new fresh goal and icon to latch onto. This impedus reverberates across adjacent countries and throughout similarly oppressed and disgruntled peoples then perhaps with all this in mind and seeing Syria as it is currently being the Worlds worst global humanity crisis in history...

Then just perhaps one might have a more realistic understanding of travelling within any muslim country and its perils for "western infadel" as the media also depicts.

In realitiy the Western world has created this from the crusades and since their last crusade to Iraq to sort the country out!! and leaving has left somewhat of a mess and a void of anger amongst the Arab nations who i am sure willl not tolerate any such invasion in future.

The anger is building and any traveller should have their eyes open to this whether their religious, political or naive

These are my thoughts on the matter and beleive you wil see more issues arise for travellers in the futrure as the youth decide to take matters into their own hands as previous elders have failed in their eyes etc...

The Globalisation, overpopulation and divide from Rich/poor is only going to exasperate matters in the future.

I daresay the majority on here are mature and intelligent enough to understand that poverty and oppression breeds resentment. But that is not the point. When on the road less travelled we seek experience from others who have gone before, try to understand and manage the risks and use a commonsense approach towards staying safe, whether that be in Ougadougou or Llanelli. Going on at length about the reasons for unrest, Islamism, terrorism, petty crime or aggressive nationalism should not blind us to the benefits and joys of travel, or stop us travelling unnecessarily.

It's sad how deceitful main media are today, which come in pair with very naive brainwashed people. These girls were not killed, but were bestially murdered and beheaded what was filmed and posted online.

This is pretty scary. I often check safety levels of the places I visit but these things can never really "researched". Like in Morocco, if I find the safety ratings there it will yield to medium risk results (example: https://www.travelsafe-abroad.com/morocco/) but in reality, these things could happen. Well of course it isn't always the case... it might be an exemption, but still. Safety precautions is always a msut.

I would suggest using a more accurate source of information than the link you posted.

It clearly hasn't been updated in a long time.

Just back from my spring trip in Morocco and the Western Sahara and absolutely no trouble or hassle the whole trip

Good to know and thanks for the heads up. I definitely listen more to actual experiences than percentages and stuff. And yeah, I make sure to compare resources so I'd get more accurate/updated info.

Funny website. Aside from the fractured English and dated information, the amount of care put into the site can be deduced from the statement that “...the three languages most spoken in Morocco are Arabic, French, Berber and Spanish.” It’s not the sort of site where I’d do my research.

I’d say that the double murder, which appears to have qualified as a terroristic act, is worth keeping in mind if only because it happened just five months ago. The fact that someone traveled there without difficulty more recently doesn’t really change anything. After all, lots of people travelled similarly without incident before the the murders, too.

This doesn’t alter the fact that Morocco continues to be a reasonably safe, fun destination.

Mark

Yes, I would not hesitate to visit Morocco again. However, I would hesitate on bushcamping with my family in the High Atlas mountains. Not the first bad story from that area, however, this is the first murder I heard from.

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2011 Overland from Amsterdam to Nepal and back
2018 Overland from Amsterdam to Tokyo via Central Asia and Mongolia

What other bad stories have you heard?

Met more Hubbers this trip than ever before, no one reported any issues.

Official figures show tourism is up on the same period in 2018 and certainly the Moroccan authorities have reacted to the murders and are taking security very seriously. The DGSN seem to a little more effective than some European security forces at catching the bad guys


Had morning tea with some Saharouwi in Laayoune who spent a long time explaining there were "no beards" in the WS

The other stories was about rocks being thrown at their car (but yeah, we had that in other countries as well), but also being disturbed by a group of young men in the night, which forced them to leave in the night. Again was with a car, so you don't have a tent to pack.

I don't know how to see it. Last year we were in the same area in Tajikistan when the cyclists got attacked, we were there one week earlier. I still see it as a safe country. And the same goes for Morocco.
But I would be hesitant to just go bushcamping in the Atlas mountains because of this. I would probably already see which sleeping locations are good enough before going in. Rather then just driving and find a place whenever you are finished for that day, like we normally do.

We have been to Morocco before, and we liked it. But you have to take care a little bit is my idea. Of all the countries we have been to, Morocco was not the easiest. In many ways it is an easy country, don't get me wrong, but it does not have the safe feeling for me like many Asian countries have for example.

However, all of the above doesn't hold us back from visiting it again. I'm just wondering, now that I have 3 girls with me :P if it is a sensible thing to go bushcamping in such an area. I do want to visit that area, because last time we visited Morocco we went along the Atlas and not really through it.

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2011 Overland from Amsterdam to Nepal and back
2018 Overland from Amsterdam to Tokyo via Central Asia and Mongolia