On Friday, 18 migrants were killed and 140 members of the Moroccan security forces were injured, as hundreds of migrants tried to cross the border fence separating the Spanish-controlled cities of Melilla and the Moroccan province of Nador in the north.
The delegation of the Spanish central government in Melilla said that about 1,500 migrants approached the Al-Siyag area, despite the intensive deployment of Moroccan security forces and the ongoing coordination between them and their Spanish counterparts.
133 migrants managed to enter Melilla across the border, which is two parallel fences 6 meters high.
The Spanish news agency Europa Press, quoting the police, reported that the migrants forcibly opened one of the gates at the border.
Morocco said that violent skirmishes lasted two hours between migrants and border guards, injuring dozens of those forces.
The Moroccan Interior Ministry said that initially 5 migrants were killed in the attack on the border, some of them after falling from the fence surrounding Melilla or being crushed, and 76 migrants were injured.
It later said 13 others had died.
She added that about 140 members of the Moroccan security forces were injured, 5 of them seriously, but this did not result in the death of any of the security personnel.
Over the past 10 years, Melilla and Ceuta, the second Spanish-controlled enclave on the northern coast of Africa, have become a magnet for migrants trying to reach Europe, mostly from sub-Saharan countries.
For his part, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez praised the security forces on both sides of the border for responding to a "violent and well-organised attack", noting that it was organized by the "human trafficking mafia".
Sanchez confirmed the improvement of relations between Madrid and Rabat, and said, "I would like to thank the exceptional cooperation that we are having with the Kingdom of Morocco, which shows the need for us to have the best relations."
The Moroccan Association for Human Rights in Nador said the incursion came a day after migrants clashed with Moroccan security personnel in an attempt to remove the camps they had set up in a forest near Melilla.
The association's president, Omar Nagy, told Reuters that the clash came as part of an "intense campaign" against migrants since Spanish and Moroccan forces resumed joint patrols and reinforced security measures in the area around Melilla.
This is the first incursion since Spain took its more pro-Rabat stance on Western Sahara.
In the weeks leading up to this transition in 2022, the entry of migrants to Ceuta and Melilla more than tripled compared to the same period in 2021.