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Ceuta warnings reached Madrid and the Civil Guard a day
September 11, 2026
Declassified documents released Wednesday show Spain's National Intelligence Center alerted the government's delegation in Ceuta and the Civil Guard on July 29.
Ceuta is a Spanish city on the North African coast bordering Morocco, reachable by a border fence and by sea, and the National Intelligence Center, known as the CNI, is Spain's state intelligence agency.
Key facts
- Aid worth €114.7 million ($133.60 million) has gone to Spain to manage conditions in the North African enclave, the European Commission announced on Wednesday.
- The alert raised the possibility that migrants would use Morocco's national Throne Day holiday, marked on July 30, as their opening.
- Thousands of people were already crossing the border when a Defense Ministry report on intelligence, dated July 30, judged Moroccan forces passive and negligent in holding migrants back.
- The Spanish leader promised last week to make public the paperwork tied to the deadliest mass crossing in Spain's history, in which NGOs put the toll at more than 140 migrants dead.
CNN reports that the papers Spain declassified on Wednesday record a warning that Ceuta was about to be stormed, sent a day before the crowds came, to Madrid and to Morocco's services. CBS News supplies the mechanics. A WhatsApp message went on July 29 to Spain's delegation in the city, relaying online calls to hit the fence and come by sea at 8 p.m. the following night, and it noted that Throne Day on July 30 might serve as cover. Messages of the same kind reached the Civil Guard that day, CBS News reports, pointing at Facebook and WhatsApp groups egging the attempts on. BBC reports that texts also landed at the central government's office in Ceuta, and that its delegate, Miguel Angel Perez Triano, spoke publicly about what had arrived there the night before the crowds came. The New York Times builds its account around the warning Madrid handed Morocco about planned crossings, and Al Jazeera around the foreknowledge of mass crossings held before the emergency broke.
Morocco's own conduct is where the accounts part. One puts the prime minister on record saying the evidence does not support the idea that Moroccan authorities organised July's deadly rush. Another leans on a leaked police file that points at Moroccan officers, and on a Defense Ministry assessment written on July 30, once the crowds were already moving, describing Moroccan forces as passive and negligent in the face of it. The sharper fight in Madrid is over foreknowledge. BBC reports Ester Munoz of the conservative People's Party saying, "They had the information, they are directly responsible for the invasion of Ceuta and for those who died," and reports that Sanchez had told parliament there was "no information that conveyed the magnitude" of what was coming. CNN reports Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares telling reporters on Wednesday that nothing he saw that day pointed to the scale of the avalanche.
The cost sits in the same coverage. BBC reports that people mostly swam around the fence and that Ceuta's mayor counts at least 100 dead. CBS News reports a higher NGO figure of more than 140 dead, and puts some 5,000 migrants still in the city weeks on, among them unaccompanied minors sleeping rough in improvised camps, on beaches and in the streets. CNN reports European Commission aid of 114.7 million euros, or $133.60 million, announced on Wednesday for the enclave. The timing and wording of the warnings are corroborated by BBC, CBS News, CNN, The New York Times and Al Jazeera. Morocco's hand in the crossing, and what Madrid could have done with a day's notice, are not.
Ester Muñoz of the conservative People's Party said: "They had the information, they are directly responsible for the invasion of Ceuta and for those who died."
Still developing
The role of Moroccan authorities in the July 30 crossing is unresolved, with a leaked police report alleging the involvement of Moroccan police and the prime minister maintaining there is no evidence of complicity. Morocco's foreign ministry has yet to answer questions about the declassified documents, and the death toll ranges from at least 100 counted by Ceuta's mayor to more than 140 reported by NGOs.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- BBC — Spanish intelligence warned of Ceuta mass crossing plans before surge
- CBS News — Spain's spy agency warned of Ceuta border breach before crisis, declassified files show
- CNN — Spain’s spy agency warned of plans to storm Ceuta before mass migrant crossing, documents show
- Al Jazeera — Spain’s spy agency warned of mass crossings into Ceuta before border crisis