The human toll

Wikipédia (français) — « Bataille de Bougafer »

“327 Moroccans were killed, including 127 women.” French losses: “according to the interview of a French sergeant in a documentary”, 16 officers, 85 NCOs and 1,800 rank-and-file, not counting partisans.

⚠ The figure of “127 women” attributed to Benadada (1999) is wrong: she writes 117. The 1,500-1,800 French dead come from an unreferenced interview, which the article attaches to Wanaïm (2024) without our being able to verify it.

Wikipedia (English) — « Assou Oubasslam »

“Thousands of Moroccans” are said to have lost their lives; civilian casualties are “estimated at four thousand, including children and women”.

⚠ The estimate of “4,000 civilian victims” and the term “systematic genocide” rest on an unsourced blog: claim set aside for lack of evidence. The same article wrongly places Bougafer in the Assif Melloul and on Jbel Baddou.

Gérardin, 1987

p. 43-45

No total. Gérardin names the officers and NCOs killed (L'Aridon, Lepape, Sieurac, Brencklé, Faucheux, Binet, Bournazel), notes that one goum lost half its strength and mentions a slope “strewn with corpses”; he gives no figure for Aït Atta losses.

Saulay, 1983

p. 57-59

French and auxiliary side: 22 killed, 41 wounded and 3 missing on 23 February; 64 killed and 115 wounded on 28 February. For the Ait Atta: “if our losses were very heavy, theirs — as we later learned — were far heavier”, with no figure.

« si nos pertes furent très lourdes, les leurs — on le saura plus tard — le furent bien davantage. »

⚠ Partial tolls for two days, from French operation reports; no total for the campaign.

Source pages : Saulay, 1983, p. 57 · Saulay, 1983, p. 59

Benadada, 1999

§ 6, n. 6

The battle “claimed 327 martyrs, among whom 117 women”, according to Maazouzi and Alaoui (1987, p. 280).

« a fait 327 martyrs parmi lesquels on compte 117 femmes »

⚠ Second-hand figure: the 1987 Arabic book was not consulted. Wikipedia, citing Benadada, wrongly writes “127 women”.

Groote verliezen in Marokko. Cijfers van de „Humanité”, 1933

p. 2 (même dépêche Reuter dans Het Vaderland, p. 5, et De Tijd, p. 9)

Reuter dispatch of 22 August 1933 relaying L'Humanité: about 3,000 dead in the “Djebel Sagho” area since the operations began, without distinguishing sides; 2,000 to 3,000 dead on both sides on the Baddou.

« Ook in het gebied van Djebel Sagho schat het blad de verliezen sedert het begin der operaties op ongeveer drieduizend dooden. »

⚠ A single, campaigning source, relayed by an agency and reprinted by three newspapers; unsourced figure, not to be added to the other estimates.

Spillmann et al., 2007

note 35 du traducteur, trad. p. 115

The translator M. Boukbout deduces from Spillmann's figures, about 800 households who took refuge in the Saghro, 150 who gave themselves up on 10 March, 490 counted after 25 March, that at least 160 families, about a thousand people, mostly women, children and old people, perished, not counting the herds.

⚠ An estimate by difference, not a count: families may have left the massif or surrendered elsewhere without being counted.

Hart, 1984

p. 180, 183

Hart reports two estimates without reconciling them. General Huré, whom he translates, infers from the number of people who came over that the defenders' losses were “over 2,000 killed, of whom 500 were armed men”, and that 90% of the 25,000 head of livestock had died or been raided. Qaid ʿAli, Assou's son, gives 1,300 casualties among the defenders and 3,500 on the French side, mostly Moroccan troops, partisans and other Aït Atta. Hart counts ten French officers killed (six in the east, four in the west).

« The losses of the defenders of Bu Gafr had thus been over 2,000 killed, of whom 500 were armed men. »

⚠ Huré's figure is a calculation (estimated refugees minus people who came over), not a count of the dead; “casualties” covers killed and wounded. These figures contradict the “327 martyrs” reported by Benadada: SAGHRO shows them side by side.

Source pages : Hart, 1984, p. 180 · Hart, 1984, p. 183