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Rabat – King Mohammed VI has given instructions to send humanitarian medical aid to Madagascar to combat an outbreak of plague in the African island nation.
The Moroccan humanitarian supply will be composed of 34 tons of medicines and medical protection equipment according to the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO), said a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday.
As of last week, the outbreak of the plague has claimed the lives of 74 people since August in the country, which is among the poorest in the world.
More than 800 other cases are estimated of being contaminated, according to the Guardian.
“Of the 684 cases reported as of 12 October, 474 were pneumonic plague, 156 bubonic and one septicaemic. A further 54 were unspecified,” said the British newspaper.
The Moroccan medical aid is aimed to help Madagascar counter the spread of the epidemic, noted the Moroccan ministry.
A Historical Bond
The press release highlighted the relations of friendship between Morocco and Madagascar which were rejuvenated during King Mohammed VI’s visit to the island in November 2016.
The country was the in-exile home for the Moroccan royal family in the 1950s when Mohammed Ben Youssef, King Mohammed VI’s grandfather, was forced out of Morocco by French colonial rulers.
The sultan spent two years in Madagascar, creating a historical bond between the two countries.
King Mohammed VI’s visit to the island was described by media as “highly symobolic”. During his trip, the monarch visited the city of Antisrabe where his grandfather and his father, the late King Hassan II, spent their two years of exile after the French occupation authorities decided to place another pupet Sultan instead of Mohammed Ben Youssef, whose independece aspirations were unfavorly seen by the colonial power.
