A group of illegal migrants threw bottles filled with a chemical solvent at Ceuta residents protesting against their continued presence in the Spanish enclave since the mass invasion of around 80,000 people from Morocco at the end of July.
The attack came only hours after local media reported that police were investigating suspicious bulk purchases of chemicals and aluminium foil by illegal migrants accompanied by NGO activists.
The attack occurred as hundreds marched through Villajovita towards central Ceuta. Local newspaper El Faro de Ceuta reported that bottles containing aguarrás, a solvent commonly used as paint thinner, were thrown directly at demonstrators. Witnesses saw one suspected attacker flee and said at least four people were involved. As some of the crowd tried to pursue them, authorities intervened and stopped them.
Earlier on Friday, Telemadrid reported that the National Police were investigating an unusually large purchase of aguafuerte—hydrochloric acid—and aluminium foil at a Ceuta supermarket by a large group of migrants accompanied by NGO activists. La Gaceta, citing police sources, identified the NGO as No Name Kitchen (NNK) and said investigators were examining whether the materials were intended for homemade devices and whether activists had assisted with their storage. There is currently no publicly known evidence linking the two cases. Nevertheless, they fit into an increasingly violent sequence of events since the mass invasion.
JUPOL, Spain’s largest police union, said a bottle containing flammable liquid had been thrown at Spanish soldiers a day earlier, describing it as a Molotov cocktail. Separately, 12 Moroccan migrants were arrested after a group of 30 to 40 people ambushed a military vehicle in Benzú with large stones, injuring four soldiers. Eleven were later expelled. Around 5,000 still remained in the enclave as of Friday.
NNK, a pro-migration organization active in Ceuta since 2021, provides humanitarian and legal assistance and campaigns against what it describes as restrictive European border policies. It had already become embroiled in serious controversy before Telemadrid’s report emerged, as two of the NGO’s activists, a Canadian and a German national, were detained earlier this week.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said they had encouraged ‘violent groups’—illegal migrants—to respond aggressively to police and had resisted officers; NNK disputes that account and says the pair were recording the conduct of the officers. Other allegations that NNK volunteers had distributed pepper spray to migrants for use against soldiers and residents have similarly been denied by the organization.
Locals had already taken a hostile stance towards NGOs, with hundreds blocking a Red Cross convoy delivering food to illegal migrants at El Trampolín. Protesters argued that continued aid would encourage them to remain.
Friday marked the fourth consecutive day of violent confrontations between protesting locals and migrants, with tensions visibly pushing towards the threshold of even more serious clashes. A month after the mass invasion, the Pedro Sánchez government still had not managed to regain control over the Spanish territory and remained largely unable to protect its own citizens.
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