Goumiers, Moroccan tribal auxiliary soldiers who fought for the French army, march in Kenitra, north of Rabat, Morocco, in September 1949. AFP
The new addition was the smallest French military burial plot in Morocco: 15 graves of Moroccan goumiers, 20th-century Moroccan auxiliary soldiers, whose bodies had been laid to rest there, in Alnif, an isolated town in Morocco's High Atlas region, east of Marrakech, nearly a century ago. The unknown soldiers buried there had died in 1933, likely during the battles of Bougafer, a steep rise in the Djebel Saghro mountain range where the French army and its local goumier auxiliaries faced off against the Ait Atta tribe of the Amazigh ethnic minority, during the French campaign dubbed the "pacification" war. By the end of this nearly 30-year war (1907-1934), France had subdued the last pockets of resistance to its conquest of Morocco.
The bodies of some Moroccan civilians who worked for the French army were also buried near the goumiers, along with some Alnif residents. The cemetery and its 72 graves were closed in the early 1970s and then abandoned. The site was only rediscovered in 2011 by a French non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the auxiliary soldiers' memories. The NGO then approached the French Armed Forces Ministry and requested funding to restore the cemetery.
