Early and colonial history The Ait Ouriaghel Berber tribe (also 'Beni Urriaguel') dominated the area around Al Hoceima. Abd el-Krim, whose father was a qadi of the Ait Youssef ou Ali clan, organized a guerilla force against the Spanish during the
Rif War, establishing the Republic of the Rif in 1921. In September 1925, Spanish General José Sanjurjo landed at Al Hoceima and claimed the territory for Spain. The Spanish developed the town and named it Villa Sanjurjo after General Sanjurjo. The first mayor was Florian Gómez Aroca.
Since Moroccan independence After Morocco gained its independence in 1956, Al Hoceima developed quickly, and the Moroccan government changed its name from the Spanish
Villa Alhucemas to
Al Hoceima. The years from 1956 to 1959 were marked by challenges for the Rif region. Morocco's
Hassan II, then crown prince, assumed the role of military commander, and during this period, a significant number of people lost their lives in the
Rif. In October 1958, the
Beni Urriaguel community
rebelled against the central administration, prompting the deployment of two-thirds of Morocco's army, led by Hassan, to Al Hoceima. In the early 1950s and 1960s, during a period of economic hardship when many of the city's inhabitants were of modest means, the small houses in the city were predominantly painted white and blue. These colors, symbolizing the sea and sky, were commonly regarded as the city's official colors. As economic conditions improved over time, residents began to paint their houses in a wider range of colors. The city and surrounding villages were hit by two large
earthquakes within ten years. The first ( 6.0 event occurred on May 26, 1994, and the second event ( 6.4) occurred on February 24, 2004, killing more than 560 people (see
2004 Al Hoceima earthquake). In 2007, Al Hoceima's mayor stated that all new houses would be painted white and blue in an effort to restore the city's traditional appearance. Al Hoceima is now a moderate-size city with a population of 56,716 recorded in the
2014 Moroccan census. It has the second-largest port of the
Rif region (
Nador being the largest). The first schools built by the Spanish colonials, (a
college and an
elementary school) and a Spanish
catholic church, still exist today. Playa Quemado, where General Sanjurjo and his troops landed in 1925, is one of Al Hoceima's well-known beaches. Situated beneath the Mohammed V hotel, the beach is frequented by visitors. The hotel offers amenities such as a tennis court, restaurant, cocktail bar, and nightclub. Al Hoceima has been the centre of repression by and political protest against the Moroccan government in the 21st century. Five young protesters were murdered, and their burned bodies found in Al Hoceima, in 2011. which led to large anti-government protests in November 2016 known as
Hirak Rif. Protests in Al Hoceima continued after the start of Ramadan, 26 May, and culminated on 26 June with "bloody clashes", then spreading to other parts of northern Morocco and the country. On 12 February 2023, National Institute of Geophysics announced two earthquakes that occurred in the Al Hoceima region, in the north of the country, measuring 3.8 and 4.3 degrees. ==Climate==