The Victim-Centered Pivot of Morocco received institutionalization when Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita gave precedence to the needs of the victims in the first International Meeting of African Victims of Terrorism, held in Rabat. The event supported by the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism was an indication of an elegant approach to African security policy, which focuses more on rehabilitation and prevention as well as enforcement. This change is a reflection of 20 years of Moroccan reforms after the 2003 Casablanca bombings where the government broke down thousands of plans and eliminated over 3,000 suspects.
The pivot comes at a point when African regions and notably the Sahel are faced with the upsurging threats of Islamic affiliates and the developing insurgent networks. Bourita pointed out that the experiences of victims should be used to influence the stability in the long-term, saying that a military reaction is not enough to respond to structural radicalization agents.
Foundations of Morocco’s legal and institutional framework
The 2003 attacks essentially re-computed the security architecture in Morocco. Law 03-03 gave more power to the prosecutors, criminalized incitement and gave more investigative powers. These measures, while contested by rights advocates at the time, became central to Morocco’s claim of having prevented more than 360 attacks between 2002 and 2022.
The early legal amendments created a platform for subsequent reforms that combined security, socio-economic development, and religious guidance. The government positioned moderate religious institutions as instruments of counter-narrative dissemination, elevating Morocco’s role as a provider of imam training for several African states.
Modernization and intelligence integration
By late 2025, Morocco’s intelligence community underwent further modernization following a R.O.C.K. Institute report that warned of growing vulnerability to AI-supported extremist operations. Kamal Akridiss argued that terrorists now exploit dual-use artificial intelligence tools, noting that digital manipulation, deepfakes, and cyber-extortion have widened threat parameters across African territories. His recommendations pushed for updated intelligence legislation, public data analysis capacity, and strengthened digital evidence protocols to anticipate emerging tactics.
The report highlighted that by 2030, intelligence services would need hybrid frameworks capable of addressing cross-domain threats spanning physical spaces, financial systems, and digital ecosystems.
Implementation of preventive and rehabilitative systems
Morocco’s Victim-Centered Pivot integrates its long-standing three-dimensional strategy combining policing, economic programs, and community-based prevention. Over time, authorities expanded reintegration roles for women and youth, especially in rural zones vulnerable to recruitment. Government agencies have increasingly linked counter-terrorism to education, psychosocial care, and employment, attempting to reduce local grievances exploited by extremist narratives.
Technology adaptation in 2025
The integration of AI-driven monitoring systems and enhanced digital forensics advanced steadily throughout 2025, responding to escalating cyber-enabled radicalization in West Africa. Security officials have noted that extremist groups now circulate encrypted multimedia propaganda using generative tools, creating a new layer of complexity for African governments.
Morocco’s technology partnerships have allowed its platforms to support early detection of manipulated media, underscoring the wider continental need for legislative modernization.
Significance of the Rabat conference for African victims
The International Conference for African Victims of Terrorism positioned Morocco as a convening leader for countries grappling with mass displacement, trauma, and recruitment cycles. Bourita’s framing centered on restoring dignity and agency for survivors, who often remain overlooked in security debates dominated by military coordination.
The conference, held with UNOCT partnership, provided African institutions with space to examine long-term psychosocial support, reintegration pathways, and access to justice mechanisms. Morocco tied this approach to its record within the Global Counterterrorism Forum, where it previously co-chaired rehabilitation and reintegration working groups.
Alignment with broader international initiatives
The Rabat event aligns with ongoing 2025 UNODC and UNOCT programs that encourage African governments to harmonize protection systems for victims and families affected by extremist attacks. These initiatives have gained relevance as Sahel states struggle to balance hard security with community-centered frameworks capable of preventing retaliatory radicalization.
Many of these countries face parallel pressures from proxy conflicts, where competing international actors shape operational environments and complicate consensus on definitions of extremism and terror financing.
Impact on African regional security and partnerships
The Victim-Centered Pivot of Morocco can be easily applicable to the lives of Sahelian states that have to address renewed violence by the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara and Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin group. In 2025, UNODC exchanges marked the focus of Moroccan experience of community resiliency, and Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger representatives reviewed the framework of trauma-informed policing and community interaction.
This consultative approach is the opposite of the militarized operation that can occasionally make the civilians even more suspicious. The Bureau Central d Investigations Judiciaires of Morocco, with a record of 183 out of 2002 interceptions by the bureau, has disseminated the tactics of interdiction with the tactics of victimization to Sahel partners.
Strategic balancing within new geopolitical realignments
By 2025, security realignments around the globe will persist in response to policy recalibrations of the U.S., unstable Middle East politics, and escalated African multipolar diplomacy. Morocco has taken advantage of this area to improve its relationship with European, American, African, and Gulf counterparts. Its tendency of prioritizing victim support is a diplomatic weapon, which makes Rabat a reliable interlocutor in a region that is regularly influenced by power struggles.
The strategy also supplements the observance of the international norms such as UNSCR 2396 provisions on passenger screening, border control and monitoring of foreign terrorist fighters by Morocco.
Ongoing challenges amid persistent threats
In effect since 2014, Operation Hadar employs police and armed forces to guard sensitive places. It is still generating debate on limits of surveillance, even though it is attributed to preventing attacks. The Victim-Centered Pivot of Morocco is an effort to deal with these issues by preempting human security and community collaboration rather than increasing the force presence in isolation.
Regional disputes and their implications
The situation in Western Sahara is one of the complicating factors to the leadership of Morocco in the region. Nonetheless, its successes in its operations such as the investigation of the Imlil attack in 2018 and habitual removal of cross-border cells makes it harder to deny as an exporter of security. Rabat keeps on juggling between these forces as it is advancing its rehabilitative vision.
Prospects for sustainable rehabilitation in Africa
The resurgence of the renewed emphasis on the reintegration of Morocco comes at a very crucial time where African states are faced with returning fighters and radicalized youth influenced by digital ecosystems. It is the reintegration systems, and especially those linked with reforms of the religious sector and the psychosocial care, which are gaining center-stage within the context of the continental discussions on long-term stability.
The imitability of the Moroccan imitations of the clerical training programs and community mediation systems provide African governments with the opportunities to cut recruitment pipelines and at the same time empower institutional legitimacy.
As survivors’ needs are reviewed and aligned with their strategies by delegates in Rabat, the Victim-Centered Pivot developed by Morocco illuminates a new paradigm of resilience, accountability, and prevention. It is yet to be seen whether this strategy will encourage a shift towards the neighboring states to leave behind the force-centered models and whether this approach will profoundly affect the African counter-terrorist strategies long after 2025 as new threats make governments look at the balance between protection and reform.
