Everyone can choose their favorite cliché: "a powder keg," "a barrel of dynamite," "a dry hill about to burn"... Each and every one of them is repeated when the Ceutíes try to describe the tension that is poisoning their environment. Its 84,000 inhabitants watch as their small city, proud of the traditional coexistence among multiple cultures, gets entangled in a toxic spiral that no one seems able to stop.
So far, the most feared scenario has not occurred: a large-scale outbreak of violence, as happened in Torre Pacheco (2025) or El Ejido (2000). However, the city has already accumulated five consecutive days of "low-intensity" violence that worries law enforcement. We are talking about attacks by immigrants against the Army, yes, but also about dozens of sexual assaults, shots fired into the air to disperse crowds, or attempts of racist attacks against newcomers.
These episodes pose an intense risk of quickly escalating into serious riots, according to the diagnosis of experts in public security who analyze the city's evolution. "If we Ceutíes are exhausted, imagine how these kids are feeling," says a veteran of the immigration services, alarmed by the events of the past week. "The most normal ones have already left, while here the worst of each household remain."
The expert also resorts to the common "powder keg" to describe the mood of the city: "Little by little, they are running out of the money they brought from Morocco. For them, recharging their mobile phone balance is a vital necessity, which can lead them to do foolish things... Well, it's just a matter of time before a tragedy occurs."
Frustration breeds violence, and there are already four documented cases of assaults against military personnel, on consecutive days since last Thursday. That day, in the Benzú area, a patrol was ambushed with large stones thrown at their vehicle. In total, the incident left four injured soldiers and, that same night, led to the arrest of 12 suspects.
This attack coincided with the tensest moment in the relationships between immigrants and locals. That afternoon, fifty Ceutíes organized a sit-in to prevent the daily food distribution carried out by Red Cross. Minutes later, a group of agitators broke through the police cordon and set fire to three of the Moroccans' shacks, a scene whose images have circulated worldwide.
The next day, Friday, an Army patrol reported the throwing of bottles with corrosive liquid. Police sources clarify that these were not the traditional Molotov cocktails, with great incendiary potential, typical of anti-system groups. This aggression was carried out with homemade devices that mix aluminum foil and industrial cleaning products, available in any supermarket, generating toxic gas clouds and corrosive liquid.
Precisely, these bottles have been involved in another of the violence incidents in recent days. Last Thursday, a loud bang was heard as a group of neighbors protested against the "invaders" near Benítez beach. Minutes later, Ceutíes' WhatsApp groups were filled with photos of one of these devices that, according to their version, caused the explosion during the gathering. A group of young people tried to chase the alleged attackers through the city's alleys, but the riot police intervened in time to prevent the situation from escalating.
In the early hours of the 29th, in the Chorrillo beach area, another military patrol was ambushed with stones. In this case, only one soldier, a sergeant, was slightly injured. Security forces arrested four suspects, including a minor, after the soldiers' call for help.
Finally, on Sunday afternoon, the Civil Guard arrested three immigrants after throwing bottles of corrosive liquid at an Army patrol. The soldiers were unarmed and not wearing protective gear, a characteristic situation of this deployment. Sources familiar with the incident claim that the attack was "premeditated," although there doesn't seem to be a stable structure linking all the attacks against Army vehicles.
At the same time, crime is on the rise. Equality confirmed yesterday 21 sexual assaults in the last month, five of which involved penetration and nine were committed against minors. Thefts have also increased: for example, two Moroccans are in prison for stealing money and documents from a neighbor's house.
The only stable solution is to get immigrants off the streets. For now, only 3,300 have a stable place to spend the night, while the identification process progresses at a desperately slow pace. "We are processing barely 40 or 50 a day", says an immigration source, who warns: "Those who are staying are the ones who have nothing to lose. We have to tackle the situation now."