Morocco's petro-PM faces heat over soaring fuel prices

RABAT, Aug 04 (AFP): Morocco's Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, a billionaire petrol baron, is facing a growing online campaign demanding he step down as fuel prices-and energy firms' profits-surge.
The government of the North African kingdom, which is heavily reliant on oil imports, insists it is doing its best to ease the economic impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing shock to crude prices.
But that hasn't stopped some 600,000 Facebook accounts sharing Arabic or French hashtags demanding that "Akhannouch quit".
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has just slammed global energy giants reaping billions in windfall profits for their "grotesque greed" that was harming the world's poorest and urged governments to tax them.
It is a sentiment shared widely in Morocco.
Many are calling on the government to halve fuel prices and impose a cap on the profits of petrol retailers-including the dominant player Afriquia, of which Akhannouch is the majority owner.