AK-47s were recently fired in the streets of the north African Spanish city of Ceuta, reports journalist and political analyst Rubén Pulido, citing sources inside Spain’s security forces.
The city, which was subjected to Morocco’s intentional deployment of thousands of illegal migrants on its border earlier this year, has been witness to similar episodes in the past. In 2019, a gunman used an AK-47 to fire on police officers.
The presence of such weapons in Ceuta, combined with the ever-looming threat of a massive influx of illegal migrants, contributes to a state of ongoing tension in a city upon which Morocco appears to have designs. The claim put forward by some analysts, including journalists favorable to the Spanish government, that Spain’s acquiescence to Moroccan plans for the Western Sahara put an end to the North African kingdom’s irredentist ambitions may prove to have been overly optimistic.
