Marruecos enviará ayuda contra la COVID-19 a 15 países africanos

King Mohamed VI of Morocco has given the order to send medical aid to 15 African countries to combat COVID-19, the Moroccan press agency MAP announced in a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom, led by Nasser Bourita. According to the note, 8 million masks, 900,000 protective screens, 600,000 surgical caps, 60,000 gowns, 30,000 liters of hydroalcoholic gel, 75,000 boxes of the drug chloroquine and 75,000 boxes of the drug azithromycin will be distributed. The "brother" countries that will benefit are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Tanzania, Chad and Zambia.

"This solidarity action is part of the implementation of the Initiative launched by His Majesty the King on 13 April 2020, as a pragmatic and action-oriented approach aimed at sisterly African countries, which allows for an exchange of experiences and good practices and seeks to establish an operational framework to support their efforts in the different phases of the management of the pandemic," MAP explains.

The Ministry also stresses that "the products and protective equipment that make up the medical aid sent to the African sister countries are manufactured in Morocco by Moroccan companies and comply with the standards of the World Health Organization". 

The supplies will start to be sent from this Monday, June 15, and will be an operation organized by Royal Air Maroc, which will charter "dozens of cargo flights around the continent," Infomediaire has learned.

This announcement comes just days after Morocco showed its desire to host the African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which will be built in the future under the auspices of the African Union. The total cost of the project amounts to 80 million euros. According to Daily Maverick, the United States supports the Kingdom's candidacy - to the detriment of others such as South Africa or the Ivory Coast - although it has not yet been officially confirmed. According to the American officials quoted by this publication, "Morocco is in a better technical position to host such a sophisticated agency".