Morocco drew harsh international criticism this week for its perceived “slow” and “poor” response to earthquake disaster aid offers from certain countries, in turn drawing a sharp rebuke from a surprising corner. British journalist Peter Beaumont, on assignment for three days in Morocco for one of Britain’s most reputable newspapers, The Guardian, dismantled the unfounded critiques in one stroke of his pen in a timely op-ed, entitled “The west is right to offer Morocco help – but disaster-hit countries are not obliged to accept it.”
Morocco had said last Sunday that it would receive aid from certain countries based on its assessment of the country’s needs. Having received offers from a number of governments throughout the world, Moroccan authorities authorized search-and-rescue teams from the United Kingdom (UK), Qatar, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to operate on the ground.
Beaumont wrote in his op-ed that the international criticism that Rabat had been “slow” to ask for help and therefore was “hampering” its aid effort had been made only by “western officials” and was “rather shabby” “sniping,” “tinged with a white saviour mentality.”
Although he acknowledged the limitations of Morocco’s aid response based on his broad experience with disasters, he highlighted its accomplishments. “While it is fair to say there are communities that are seeing assistance arrive too slowly,” he said, “overall, the Moroccan government’s response has been reasonably effective.”
He rattled off the efforts made by Moroccan authorities and ordinary people to deliver aid even despite road closures, precarious dirt paths to Atlas Mountains, and challenging rugged terrain.
“The country’s military helicopters have been flying nonstop for days, while an enormous self-organized social effort by ordinary Moroccans has mobilized help from people across the country.”
The reporter recognized that dispersed populations in numerous scattered villages and challenging terrain had limited the relief operations and posed logistical challenges. Yet Morocco with its own resources had managed “within a mere 48 hours to partially reopen a crucial road into the earthquake-stricken area, facilitating the flow of aid.”
Getting to perhaps what is the crux of the matter, Beaumont wrote “some of the criticisms levelled at Morocco carry a whiff of white saviour complex, this pervasive notion that western countries are uniquely equipped to help in such circumstances of disaster and need.”
He rejected the proposition out of hand, however. “The notion that certain countries are innately better equipped at emergency response seems ridiculous and arrogant,” he quipped.
To the contrary, he pointed out, Morocco is an independent sovereign nation. One of the first principles of humanitarian aid is “sovereignty in decisionmaking.” It is up to the country itself to recognize its needs during a crisis, and if necessary ask for help from other countries. Being located on the African continent or being a lesser developed country does not mean Morocco is “fragile” or “failed” or “failing” and needs a savior.
While offering help is good, forcing its acceptance is not. Moroccans are best positioned to determine their needs, not France nor Algeria or any other country, as France’s President Emmanuel Macron “was belatedly forced to concede,” noted Beaumont.
He reminded also of another principle: “that those offering and sending assistance should be sure that their efforts are contributing to the relief effort, not acting as [a] drain on valuable resources.”
He said that he had observed after only three days on assignment in Morocco that “some foreign search teams had no job to do.”
Beaumont concluded the op-ed by stating the obvious, that is, obvious to all but the snipers: “the pressing question is how to help Morocco in the long term rebuild devastated communities who have lost everything.”
And that, he notes, will require “a serious commitment from Morocco’s international partners.” And less sniping.