King Mohammed VI led Morocco’s government in managing the earthquake’s consequences, in contrast to what was reported by many media, including Financial Times (FT), wrote Zaid M. Belbagi in a letter to FT sent on Monday.
The document, entitled “Morocco and Libya: A Tale of Two Disasters,” responded to FT’s claim that the King kept company with celebrities while his people were suffering. The article was meant to compare Morocco’s and Libya’s crisis management response within the context of the earthquake and the flood, respectively.
Belbagi wrote that “Morocco’s successes in the initial hours had a profound impact,” and that it should be attributed to the King’s intervention.
The Moroccan response team–led by the King–engaged the Kingdom’s Army (FAR), along with the Moroccan Air Force, which were deployed around the clock to distribute relief to hard-to-reach villages.
One week after the quake, impacted people were already enrolled in a disaster relief system to cover them for the remainder of the year, while the government made commitments to rebuild their homes.
International institutions are still maintaining their events planned for Morocco. The IMF/World Bank’s annual meeting to be held in Marrakech, for example, is still set to take place. It is slated to be the organization’s first annual meeting on the African Continent since 1973, concluded Belbagi.