Driouch

Driouch is the capital of the province of the same name in the Rif, which reaches the Mediterranean in the north and covers 2,867 square kilometres.¹ The province belongs to the Oriental region.² In the 2024 census the town of Driouch had 15,661 inhabitants.³

The province was created by Decree no. 2-09-319 of 11 June 2009, which added it to the administrative divisions alongside Nador province.⁴ Its territory was separated from Nador province.⁵ Since the regional reform of 2015 it has formed the Oriental region together with the prefecture of Oujda-Angad and six other provinces.⁶

In 2024 the province had 188,191 inhabitants, 58,347 in towns and 129,844 in the countryside.⁷ The urban share rose from 26.5 per cent in 2014 to 31.0 per cent, the sharpest increase in the region; even so, Driouch remains the least urbanised province of the Oriental.⁸ Overall the population was 22,868 lower than in 2014, while the urban population grew by 0.41 per cent a year.⁹

Besides Driouch, Ben Taïeb with 15,002 and Midar with 15,391 inhabitants are urban municipalities. The rural municipalities of Temsamane (Kourouna), Tafersit, Tsaft (Kassita) and Dar El Kebdani also have urban centres.¹⁰ The remaining municipalities are divided among four districts: Rif Achamaliya, Rif Aljanoubiya, Driouch Achamaliya and Driouch Aljanoubiya.¹¹

The province is predominantly Amazigh-speaking: 89.6 per cent of the population speak Tarifit in everyday life and 59.8 per cent Darija.¹² For the region as a whole the share of Tarifit is 31.1 per cent.¹³

The district of Rif Achamaliya includes the municipality of Boudinar, which had 7,996 inhabitants in 2024.¹⁴ Its territory borders the Mediterranean to the north and covers 6,400 hectares, 70 per cent of it mountainous; it lives mainly from growing cereals and belonged to Nador province until 2009.¹⁵