Marruecos acusa a Argelia de “alimentar el separatismo” y desviar recursos para “desestabilizar la región”

"Despite the exceptional circumstances, a neighbouring country continues to fuel separatism and divert resources from its population to acts of regional destabilisation," Morocco's Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said on Monday, as part of the Non-Aligned Movement's online Contact Group. A veiled allusion to its Algerian neighbours, who had taken advantage of the international meeting, dedicated to the fight against the pandemic, to accuse Morocco, without daring to name it, of "occupying" Saharawi territory. The latest verbal confrontation between the two Maghrebi neighbours took place in relation to the world crisis of the coronavirus, and this time by video conference. 

The head of the Algerian state, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, had asked during his speech to the non-aligned community for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution asking for an immediate cessation of hostilities throughout the world "without losing sight of the situation in the occupied lands, as is the case with Palestine and Western Sahara". The Moroccan response to the Algerian accusations in a forum convened to agree on a united response against the viral pandemic was not long in coming. "Instead of using its resources to improve the precarious situation of its population in relation to the coronavirus pandemic, this country invests them in fuelling plans under way to feed regional destabilisation", Bourita insisted in declarations collected by the daily, Le Matin du Sahara et du Maghreb, which also condemned Algeria for violating the founding principles of the Non-Aligned Movement by its attitude. The Non-Aligned Movement -whose meeting was convened on Monday at the request of Azerbaijan- is the second largest forum of countries after the UN. 

Both countries' press have widely reported on this week's meeting. In the Moroccan press, Hespress, one of the main digital media, headlined its report "Nasser Bourita puts Algeria back in its place". It underlined the incongruity of the Algerian leader in condemning Moroccan "hostility" and forgetting that which his government is demonstrating with the Hirak or social movement of protest against the regime. The official digital Le360, for its part, spoke of a " desperate call " from Tebboune to the UN Security Council and accused it of " the trickery " of mixing up the Palestinian and Saharawi questions. And he recalled that Tebboune's so-called "ridiculous" call comes in the midst of a critical economic situation. The Algerian media, on the other hand, has aligned itself unwaveringly with its authorities. For example, El Watan spoke of "frontal attacks" and Dzair Daily assured that "Moroccan hostilities against Algeria are returning".

It remains to be seen if in the coming hours and days the verbal escalation will continue and materialise in some new episode of disagreement. Some analysts have welcomed the sort of health truce that the two neighbours have been experiencing in recent weeks, as evidenced by the effective cooperation in the process of mutual repatriation when the borders were closed in mid-March due to the pandemic. 

In his virtual speech at the Non-Aligned Movement forum, Bourita highlighted his country's response, led by King Mohammed VI, to the coronavirus epidemic. "We need to put in place mechanisms for reflection, proposal and consultation to successfully address the challenges we face, such as wars, internal conflicts, poverty, pandemics and terrorist threats". The Moroccan Foreign Minister, in statements collected by Le Matin du Sahara et du Maghreb, said that the international community is at a turning point and recalled the importance of multilateralism. 

Bourita also summarised the three main consequences of the pandemic for the world and the continent. Firstly, he warned that the pandemic will continue with us and showed his conviction that universal access to the future vaccine is crucial for global health, and urged the Non-Aligned Movement to defend it. Secondly, the head of Moroccan diplomacy warned that "mitigating the socio-economic impact of the pandemic is as important as bending the curve of the pandemic. Finally, Bourita stressed the particularly vulnerable situation in which Africa finds itself in the face of the health crisis, recalling that over 85% of the continent's workers are in the shadow sector. 

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Morocco wanted to share his country's experience in the fight against the pandemic, whose response he summarised in five principles: solidarity, anticipation, prevention, holistic approach and citizen's priority, with the most vulnerable in first place, as echoed by Le Matin. Bourita recalled that Morocco was one of the first countries to close its airspace and the creation - at the request of the sovereign - of a solidarity fund to combat the effects of the pandemic which has exceeded 3 billion euros. The Foreign Minister also mentioned the pan-African initiative launched by King Mohamed VI to combat the consequences of the health crisis caused by the pandemic on the continent in a concerted and coordinated manner. A pandemic which, at the close of this text, had resulted in 5,505 infections and 183 deaths in Morocco.