Morocco political group tells members not to criticise gov’t after quake: official says

Abdel Wahed Al-Mutawakkil, who heads the political circle of Morocco’s Justice and Charity Movement, the largest political Islamist group in the kingdom, revealed yesterday that the group has instructed its members to refrain from criticising or blaming the authorities after the massive earthquake that hit the country last month and to prioritise relief and humanitarian field work.

In an interview published on the movement’s website, Al-Mutawakkil said the directives were to work “calmly in view of the exceptional situation that requires urgent intervention”, adding that “we found that we are facing very vast areas suffering from misery, fragility and neglect.”

“Every official should be asked about his responsibility: Did he do what was necessary or was he negligent?” he added, explaining that the earthquake revealed the extent of neglect these areas suffer from, the extent of corruption and the effects of irrational governance.

He called on the country’s officials to “take the matter seriously and end the plight of the residents of those areas as soon as possible.”

On 8 September, a 7-magnitude earthquake struck Morocco, affecting several regions, killing 2,960 people and injuring 6,125 others in addition to major material destruction, according to the latest data from the Ministry of the Interior.

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