Abdellah Dacha, bronze medallist in the 2,000 metres steeplechase at the 2007 IAAF World Youth Championships in Ostrava and fourth two years later in the same Championships in Bressanone, was banned for four years after a positive out-of-competition test for the banned blood booster EPO.

The 24-year-old set a 3,000m steeplechase personal best of 8min 28.77secs in 2012

Also banned for four years after refusing to submit to a doping control was 32-year-old Jaouad Zain, who has a marathon personal best from 2015 of 2 hours 16min 56sec.

Othmane El Goumri, who competed at the 2013 and 2015 IAAF World Championships and the 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships, received a two-year ban following analysis of his Athlete Biological Passport.

Last year, the 24-year-old set personal bests of 3:36.21 for 1500m in Rabat, 7:36.71 for 3,000m in London and 27:46.34 for 10,000m in Eugene.

An in-competition test showing up betamethasone at this year’s Marathon Vert d’Agadir resulted in 36-year-old Mohamed Boufdil being given a two-year suspension.

Jamel Chatbi, the 2009 Mediterranean Games champion, earned a ban for two years and eight months for three whereabouts failures within 12 months.

Naima Elayadi, 37, earned a six-month suspension following an in-competition test at this year’s Marrakesh half marathon showed up the presence of Prednisolone.

In March the IAAF named Morocco among five nations for whom the anti-doping situation was viewed as being "very critical" - the others being Ethiopia, Kenya, Ukraine and Belarus.

Five Moroccan athletes - Abdelhadi Labali, Hanane Ouhaddou, Mohcine Cheaouri, Adil Annani and Zakaria Rabah  - received doping sanctions from the Royal Moroccan Athletics Federation in October.

Abeyie, 34, ran for Britain at the 2006 European Championships in the 200m and 2004 and 2006 World Indoor Championships in the 60m and 200m respectively before switching allegiance in 2011 to Ghana, whom he represented in the 200m heats at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. 

He received a four-year ban after an in-competition test at the Kaiserslautern meeting on July 4 last year.

The Saarbrucker Zeitung newspaper reported that Abeyie had tested positive for the banned steroids stanozolol and metandienone, although he said he could not explain how they had come to be found in his sample.

The latest IAAF list also includes two 19-year-old Iranian shot putters, Amin Lotfollahi and Mehdi Rostami Mogaddam, both banned for four years after in-competition tests showed the presence of banned anabolic agents.

Lotfollahi tested positive for metandienone, and Rostami Mogaddam for metandienone and stanozolol.