Morocco Reiterates before AU its Attachment to African Solidarity to Protect the Continent against COVID-19

Morocco is strongly attached to the principle of African solidarity to protect the Continent and contribute globally to eradicate the COVID-19 pandemic, said Thursday in Addis Ababa, the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom to the African Union (AU) and the UNECA. The Moroccan delegation, which took part in the 10th meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the African Union (PRC), held by videoconference, noted that today it is more than necessary to continue “our individual and collective efforts to equip us with vaccine manufacturing capacities and vaccinate the entire African population”. It is in this spirit that the Moroccan delegation announced to the PRC that the Kingdom of Morocco, under the enlightened leadership of HM King Mohammed VI, has signed agreements for the manufacture in Morocco of the COVID-19 vaccine as well as other vaccines. This structuring project is part of the Sovereign’s desire to provide the Kingdom with complete and integrated industrial and biotechnological capacities, dedicated to the manufacture of vaccines in Morocco. It seeks to enable the Kingdom to produce the COVID-19 vaccine as well as other key vaccines so as to promote the self-sufficiency of the Kingdom and to make Morocco a leading biotechnology platform at the continental and international levels in the area of the “fill & finish” industry. The Moroccan delegation, which highlighted the Kingdom’s active solidarity with Africa, affirmed that Morocco was among the first countries, if not the first African state, to convert its industry to meet health national and continental needs by manufacturing masks, antiseptic gels and other African sanitary equipment. Morocco has also, in a spirit of solidarity, made several donations of this equipment to more than twenty African countries from the 5 regions of the Continent, the Moroccan delegation recalled. “While the delta variant remains a real threat that we urgently need to address, it will not cause havoc in Africa as long as we continue to show active solidarity and make the necessary efforts at the national and continental levels by mutually reinforcing our capability developments”, said the Political Advisor to the Mission of the Kingdom, Yassin Guaouane, who is leading the Moroccan delegation to this meeting. The Mission of the Kingdom, led by the Permanent Ambassador Representative of Morocco to the AU and UNECA, Mohamed Arrouchi, had proposed that the pandemic situation on the Continent be included as a permanent issue on the agenda of PRC meetings.