Video – Minister Ouahbi: We are working on many legal and logistics measures to provide appropriate housing for earthquake-stricken people
Arab Forum TV program has recently invited Minister of Justice Mr. Abdellatif Ouahbi as its guest to talk lengthily about implications of the earthquake which struck Morocco several weeks ago. The Justice Minister has stated that “the earthquake was a real catastrophe and Allah Blessing solidarity and support among Moroccan citizens have intensively reduced the amount of this crisis”.
Talking about the earthquake toll, Minister Ouahbi has confirmed that “figures as officially recorded by the Ministry of Interior have reached 3.000 deaths and 6.000 injured, and as a result of the overcrowding at hospitals to receive injured persons, the Justice Ministry from its side has opened its summer vacations camps in Agadir and Marrakech to accommodate those injured people and has also created a committee of social assistants to make site-visits to damaged areas in order to offer necessary assistance and help people redo their legal documents free-of-charge; in addition to the contribution of the Justice Ministry staff to the earthquake fund 126, and we are still following up the situation especially concerning taking care of children and do what we call the legal re-construction of the area”.
Responding to a question about compensations for earthquake damaged people, Minister Ouahbi stated that “There should be no comparison to be made between Morocco and Lebanon where people have received compensations as result of the war damage, Morocco is facing a natural catastrophe and our big efforts should now focus on reconstruction and providing appropriate houses for peoples being damaged by the earthquake; though we are stressed by time, we are working hard to accelerate the reconstruction process before the winter comes”.
On the question about rejection or acceptance of Algerian aid to Morocco, Minister Ouahbi said that “you should ask Algerian themselves and ask that press channel which has erroneously reported the news, which was not true, and I’ve not made any statement on that. “Algeria, continued the Minister, knows well that communication in this specific case should go through the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and regarding French aid, Minister Ouahbi said that “Morocco is a sovereign country and we have our own choices, our own priorities and our own needs, and we will make our appropriate decisions based on the choice of our people under His Majesty King Mohammed VI leadership, and this file is run by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.”
“What Morocco needs from others is that they should know that Morocco is an organized country under His Majesty King Mohammed VI’s leadership; and also that the political process in Morocco is comfortable calm and enjoys a great deal of stability”, said Minister Ouahbi.
