On Africa Day, the House of Representatives Calls for Incarnating Solidarity with Africa in its Fights Against COVID-19

The international community celebrates Africa Day this year amidst a peculiar context marked with the propagation of COVID-19 and its economic and social repercussions.

On this occasion, which the House of Representatives has been celebrating since 2017, we should recall our country's contribution in giving new impetus to the African Union organs since the return of Morocco to its African institutional family in January 2017.

This return was the culmination of several dynamics and huge efforts lead by His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God glorify him, in Africa, reflected by the official visits he performed to the majority of African countries, the bilateral agreements His Majesty concluded, and the joint projects he launched and supervised with his brotherly leaders of African countries.

Our country, under the leadership of HM the King and his vision of African cooperation, has been keen to implement policies of bilateral and multilateral cooperation that are based on mutual gain, fruitful partnerships, inclusive and sustainable development, exchange of expertise, and giving a practical aspect to the South-South Cooperation in a way that meets the aspirations and needs of African peoples in employment, dignity, helps benefit from their skills and utilize them in constructing a new Africa.

The strategic African location of our country, which HM the King consolidates through a continental solidarity vision, puts us in the face of a responsibility of institutional parliamentary contribution to step up to the level of the Royal realizations in Africa.

In this respect, we worked on strengthening our relations with the African national parliaments at the bilateral and multilateral parliamentary levels based on institutionalization and conclusion of agreements, the structuring of national parliamentary representations and friendship groups, the organization of thematic fora on the questions that we advocate within the international parliamentary organizations for Africa, such as migration, climate, partnership for development, and the questions of women, youth, and acquiring modern technologies.

The Africa Day sees the light this year, and for the second year in a row, in a peculiar context marked with the propagation of COVID-19 and its economic and social repercussions. Despite their limited resources, many African countries have shown a spirit of responsibility in addressing the pandemic by working on respecting the necessary precautions for safety and solidarity. Such spirit was the subject of commendation by the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who noted that "African countries have shown great leadership worthy of praise in their fight against COVID-19."

If the leadership of His Majesty the King of Morocco in its fight against the pandemic at the health, economic, and social levels has affirmed the uniqueness of the Moroccan model and the efficiency of the Moroccan strategy accompanied by special royal attention, other achievements have seen the light in Africa. However, this does not exempt the international community from its duty to show solidarity with Africa and assist several African peoples who have not yet acquired the necessary vaccine doses, nor the financial, material, and logistical resources to address the pandemic and its repercussions.

On Africa Day, the House of Representatives commends the initiatives of His Majesty King Mohammed VI that concretely reflect solidarity and support to several African countries in their fight against the pandemic. The House also praises the call of His Majesty to the international community to support the countries in need of assistance, pursuant to the humanitarian and global solidarity duty. Meanwhile, we, the House of Representatives, reiterate the call to the international parliamentary community, following the calls and initiatives of HM the King, to call upon governments, especially those of rich countries, to engage in solidarity and to share the resources for addressing the pandemic, and mainly vaccines and the means for protection and diagnosis.

The global parliamentary conscience is being challenged by the suffering of millions of Africans in their fight against the pandemic, whose repercussions have piled on in addition to the climate imbalances, desertification, and involuntary migration