The French Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonna, rejected this morning – in an interview with BFM TV – any tension between Rabat and Paris, after Morocco has not yet accepted aid from France after the earthquake that hit the country in the night between Friday and Saturday. La Colonna denied the existence of a “dispute” between the two governments, a thesis that emerged after RAbat did not accept the help proposed by President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday morning and after there had been – recently – several tensions between the two governments. The minister invited us to “respect” the decisions of Morocco, which is “a sovereign country”, which has decided to “give priority to the arrival of aid, addressing the available countries on a case-by-case basis and not receiving aid that would not correspond to the his needs”. La Colonna reiterated that France “remains at the disposal” of the reign of Mohammed VI, the sovereign with whom Macron has had “contacts on several occasions”. Last night Morocco announced that it would only accept aid from 4 countries, including Spain and Great Britain, thanking all those who proposed sending rescuers. Rabat specified that he had only accepted aid from the 4 countries “after having carried out a detailed assessment of the needs on the ground and taking into account the fact that a lack of coordination could be counterproductive”.
French expert, ‘Morocco is reticent about aid due to pride’
«When a State is the victim of a catastrophe, it is up to the State itself to ask for any help. It’s a question of sovereignty. It is not up to international aid to rush into a country, unless it is in a state of failure, as in Haiti in 2010″: he explains it, in an interview with Le Monde, Sylvie Brunel, former director of the humanitarian association Action contre la faim, geographer at the Sorbonne and specialist in Africa and development and famine issues. «King Mohamed VI – continues the expert – wants to maintain authority over the country. It is also a form of national pride. Put yourself in Morocco’s place. In the event of a natural disaster in France, can you imagine Moroccan or American NGOs rushing in? International humanitarian aid always goes from developed countries towards the undeveloped. As an emerging country, which wants to be Europe’s interlocutor and aspires to the status of a regional power, Rabat wants to demonstrate that it is sovereign, capable of directing relief efforts and not behaving like a devastated poor country that everyone is mercifully going to help.”