Prefectures and provinces of Morocco
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In Morocco, the 75 second-level administrative subdivisions are 13 prefectures and 62 provinces. They are subdivisions of the 12 regions of Morocco.[1] Each prefecture or province is subdivided into arrondissements (only in prefectures of some metropolitan areas), municipalities (communes, sing. commune) or urban municipalities (communes urbaines, sing. commune urbaine) in other urban areas, and districts (cercles, sing. cercle) in rural areas. The districts are subdivided into rural municipalities (communes rurales, sing. commune rural). One prefecture (Casablanca) is also subdivided into préfectures d'arrondissements (sing. préfecture d'arrondissements), similar to districts (cercles) except they are grouping a few arrondissements instead of rural municipalities.
Note: The arrondissements and (urban) municipalities should probably be thought of as fourth-level subdivisions, on the same level as the rural municipalities, but they are not part of any district.[2]
List of prefectures and provinces
Seats / Headquarters
Mainland Morocco
- M'diq-Fnideq Prefecture
- Tangier-Assilah Prefecture
- Al Hoceïma Province
- Chefchaouen Province
- Fahs-Anjra Province
- Larache Province
- Ouezzane Province
- Tétouan Province
- Prefecture of Oujda-Angad
- Berkane Province
- Driouch Province
- Figuig Province
- Guercif Province
- Jerada Province
- Nador Province
- Taourirt Province
- Prefecture of Fès
- Prefecture of Meknès
- Boulemane Province
- El Hajeb Province
- Ifrane Province
- Sefrou Province
- Taounate Province
- Taza Province
- Moulay Yacoub Province
- Prefecture of Rabat
- Prefecture of Salé
- Prefecture of Skhirat-Témara
- Kénitra Province
- Khémisset Province
- Sidi Kacem Province
- Sidi Slimane Province
- Prefecture of Casablanca
- Prefecture of arrondissements of Casablanca Anfa
- Prefecture of arrondissements of Al Fida - Mers Sultan
- Prefecture of arrondissements of Aïn Sebaâ - Hay Mohammadi
- Prefecture of arrondissement of Hay Hassani
- Prefecture of arrondissement of Aïn Chock
- Prefecture of arrondissements of Sidi Bernoussi
- Prefecture of arrondissements of Ben M'Sick
- Prefecture of arrondissements of Moulay Rachid
- Prefecture of Mohammedia
- Ben Slimane Province
- Berrechid Province
- El Jadida Province
- Médiouna Province
- Nouaceur Province
- Settat Province
- Sidi Bennour Province
- Prefecture of Marrakech (fr)
- Al Haouz Province
- Chichaoua Province
- El Kelâat Es-Sraghna Province
- Essaouira Province
- Rehamna Province
- Safi Province
- Youssoufia Province
- Prefecture of Agadir-Ida Ou Tanane
- Prefecture of Inezgane-Aït Melloul
- Chtouka Aït Baha Province
- Taroudant Province
- Tata Province
- Tiznit Province
Western Sahara (most under de facto Moroccan administration)
Most of Western Sahara is administered de facto by Morocco (where the area is informally named the Southern Provinces by the Moroccan government and media); the rest is administered by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
The United Nations considers the territory to be disputed, as it was not legally transferred by Spain when it abandoned its former colony in 1975, and several states (notably members of the African Union) either recognize the SADR as the sole legitimate government of Western Sahara, or consider that the status of the region (either as an independent state, or as part of Morocco, or as part of Mauritania that initially claimed a part of it) has still not been autodetermined by the local population prior to its annexation. The United Nations has no legal instruments confirming the claims on the region made by the governments of Morocco or the self-proclaimed SADR, and in international treaties, it is still a formal part of Spain that remains to be properly decolonized, even though Spain and Mauritania no longer claim any part of it.
Since the annexation, the situation is worsened by the fact that most of the historic Western Saharan population has fled either to the remaining free zone (now isolated by the Moroccan militarized berm) or to refugee camps in neighbouring countries (notably Algeria), due to lack of resources in the free zone. The remaining native Western Saharan population now lives as a minority among the new Moroccan occupants. The absence of a legal government with a permanent administration in the free zone has also introduced a threat to the security of the surrounding countries in the Saharan and Sahel regions, including Morocco itself.
- Assa-Zag Province (partly located in Western Sahara)
- Sidi Ifni Province (located in Mainland Morocco)
- Guelmim Province (located in Mainland Morocco)
- Tan-Tan Province (located in Mainland Morocco)
- Boujdour Province
- Es Semara Province
- Laâyoune Province
- Tarfaya Province (partly located in Mainland Morocco)
Before 2015
Mainland Morocco
- Prefecture of Casablanca
- Prefecture of Mohammedia
- Médiouna Province
- Nouaceur Province
- Prefecture of Marrakesh-Medina
- Prefecture of Marrakesh-Menara
- Prefecture of Sidi Youssef Ben Ali
- Al Haouz Province
- Chichaoua Province
- El Kelâat Es-Sraghna Province
- Essaouira Province
- Rehamna Province
- Prefecture of Rabat
- Prefecture of Salé
- Prefecture of Skhirat-Témara
- Khémisset Province
- Tangier Sub-Region
- Prefecture of Tangier-Assilah
- Fahs-Anjra Province
- Tétouan Sub-Region
- Prefecture of Oujda-Angad
- Berkane Province
- Driouch Province
- Figuig Province
- Jerada Province
- Nador Province
- Taourirt Province
- Prefecture of Meknès
- El Hajeb Province
- Errachidia Province
- Ifrane Province
- Khénifra Province
- Midelt Province
- Prefecture of Agadir-Ida Ou Tanane
- Prefecture of Inezgane-Aït Melloul
- Chtouka Aït Baha Province
- Ouarzazate Province
- Taroudant Province
- Zagora Province
- Sidi Ifni Province
- Tiznit Province
- Tinghir Province
Moroccan Sahara (most under de facto Moroccan administration)
- Assa-Zag Province (located in Mainland Morocco)
- Es Semara Province
- Guelmim Province (located in Mainland Morocco)
- Tan-Tan Province (located in Mainland Morocco)
- Tata Province (located in Mainland Morocco)
Wilaya
In Morocco, a wilaya is an administrative division created in 1981 that "brings together many provinces or prefectures or both at the same time, and is intended to endow big urban units such as Casablanca with an administrative organization capable of meeting the needs that emerge from these expanding cities and their growing populations."[3] Therefore, strictly speaking, the level of wilayas are between the regions and prefectures/provinces (although wilayas only cover urban areas). However, they are often used synonymous with regions or prefectures/provinces in common usage.[4]
See also
- Regions of Morocco
- List of administrative divisions of Morocco by population (2004)
- List of administrative divisions of Morocco by area (2004)
- ISO 3166-2:MA (2004)
References
- ^ a b "Population légale d'après les résultats du RGPH 2014 sur le Bulletin officiel N° 6354" (PDF). Haut-Commissariat au Plan (in Arabic). Retrieved 2015-07-11.
- ^ HCP.ma List of districts and municipalities (communes) of Morocco by province/prefecture Archived 2009-04-18 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The Wilaya of Grand Casablanca Archived May 1, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Wilayas, Prefectures and Provinces Archived July 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine