By Said Temsamani
Malian President, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, reiterated his gratitude to His Majesty King Mohammed VI for all solidarity actions initiated by the Moroccan Sovereign for Mali.
In a speech to the nation on the occasion of the New Year, the Malian President highlighted the historic visit by King Mohammed VI Mali in September 2013, stressing that ” the Sovereign stayed for four nights and five days. He prayed with us. He visited our cottages and thought of our patients coming to us with a field hospital .”
Keita welcomed the quality of services rendered by the Moroccan military field hospital , which has just completed its humanitarian mission in Mali after more than three months of commendable services.
It is worth noting that King Mohammed attended personally the new Malian presendential inauguration last September to show full and unconditional support to the new democratically elected government but most importantly is that King Mohammed’s presence in Mali conveyed a powerful message to African leaders. Morocco will continue to be present in Africa and reinforce south-south cooperation to contribute to the development of the African continent and collaborate with American and European allies to bring peace and stability to this continent.
In this respect, Morocco has taken the lead in aiding Mali’s humanitarian and economic obstacles. In fact, after Mali had emerged from a civil war that severely set back its developmental efforts, in addition to its poor agricultural conditions and a deterioration in trade agreements that led to great loss in economic momentum in Mali over the past two years, King Mohammed VI gave his approval for an immediate humanitarian and medical aid package.
Through this humanitarian initiative, Morocco contributed to easing the sufferings of a population that was the victim of terrorist attacks flatly denounced by the kingdom and the international community of the course of a two-year civil war.
The Moroccan government mandated the establishment of a multidisciplinary medical-surgical hospital that was at the service of Malians and reinforced existing medical capacities.
With nearly 300,000 people displaced within Mali due to the conflict, hunger and malnutrition posed additional challenges to the health and well being of vulnerable children and adults. The Moroccan emergency medical aid helped reduce human suffering and curbed the spread of deadly diseases.
Undoubtedly, the existing Moroccan investments in Mali, in addition to future ventures, will certainly give a new impetus to the Malian economy and will open wide doors to other international investments to help Mali overcome its economic hardship; but, most importantly, it will play a role in assisting the newly elected government in moving forward with its road map for economic and political reforms.
King Mohammed VI has voiced Morocco’s deep commitment to help Mali and other African countries to achieve more dynamic and sustainable growth. It is now the duty of these countries to intensify their efforts to create an environment that will encourage more private investment; notably an environment that promotes confidence in macroeconomic policies, builds the necessary infrastructure and provide qualified labor, creates a transparent judicial system, and, more generally, ensures good governance.
Finally, the new Malian government will need to implement policies of reforms on a comprehensive and sustained basis, to achieve the desired goals of accelerating growth and reducing poverty. For that it can rely on Morocco as its perpetual strong African partner.
About: Said Temsamani
Senior Fellow at the Meridian International Center and member of the National Press Club, Washington DC. Said Temsamani is a political analyst who follows events in Morocco and across North Africa.
