Casablanca — King Mohammed VI is scheduled to begin a three day visit to Zambia’s capital of Lusaka in December, source acquainted with the topic told Morocco World News.
Casablanca — King Mohammed VI is scheduled to begin a three day visit to Zambia’s capital of Lusaka in December, source acquainted with the topic told Morocco World News.
The visit will take place after the Muslim holiday of the Prophet Mohammed’s birthday, which will fall on Monday December 12.
The monarch’s trip to Zambia comes after a series of official visits in various African countries: Rwanda, Tanzania, Senegal, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Nigeria and soon, Zambia.
Through his travel, King Mohammed VI has been able to extend the influence of Morocco across the continent and has proven to be a champion for South-South cooperation, with already 104 bilateral agreements signed between Morocco and the countries visited by the monarch.
On the king’s impending visit to Zambia, President Edgar Lungu told Times of Zambia that he “is impatiently awaiting His Majesty the King’s visit and I am confident that we will have fruitful meeting to reinforce bilateral cooperation between our two countries.”
President Edgar Lungu had himself visited Morocco last month to attend the COP22 climate change conference in Marrakech.
Zambian press did not, however, shy away from discussing more controversial issues surrounding the king’s visit. In its coverage of the king’s impending visit, the Lusaka Times noted the controversy surrounding the Western Sahara conflict, as Zambia had always recognized the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
Just last February, President Lungu was reported to have accepted letters of credence from the SADR Ambassador Brahim Salam El Mami and was said to have assured him that Zambia’s support for the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination was indisputable.
Still no official word on whether the issue will be discussed during the monarch’s visit, but King Mohammed VI’s absolute commitment to South-South cooperation and the nation’s determination to rejoin the African Union in spite of past conflicts would suggest otherwise.
