AU-PSC: Morocco underscores interconnection between health security and peace & security

Morocco has underscored the interconnection existing between health security and peace and security and insisted that conflict and instability can exacerbate public health problems.

This came at a meeting held this Thursday by the African Union’s Peace and security Council (PSC) on “Health security and the promotion of peace and security in Africa”, chaired by the Kingdom’s Permanent Representative to the AU and UNECA, Mohamed Arrouchi.

The Moroccan delegation stressed at the meeting that health security and the promotion of peace and security are deeply interconnected, and that conflict and instability can exacerbate public health problems.

The Moroccan delegation called, in this vein, for a unified continental approach to pandemic preparedness, strengthening and restoring health systems in Africa, within the framework of an AU Pandemic Preparedness and Response (PRP) policy, and promoting a stronger African health diplomacy.

The Moroccan delegation urged the AU Commission and international partners to make greater efforts to improve health systems in Africa, and to promote vaccine research and development, through the creation of African regional research centres to strengthen disease surveillance and response capacities, with a view to preparing for potential pandemic shocks.

It also stressed the need to institutionalize the link between peace and health security, by scheduling, at least once a year, a meeting between the PSC and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) to take stock of the interconnection between the continent’s security and health situation, and by accelerating the operationalization of the African Medicines Agency.

This PSC meeting is held while a cholera outbreak is gripping the Southern Africa region, which highlights the persisting challenges of disease epidemics facing the continent. According to Africa CDC, from January 2023 to January 24, 2004, a staggering total of 252,934 cases and 4,187 deaths have been reported from 19 AU Member States. Alarmingly, over 72.5% of these cases are reported from the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region. In response to the crisis, SADC convened an extraordinary summit on February 2, during which the regional bloc outlined a range of measures to curb the outbreak.

While the current meeting provides an opportunity to explore ways of supporting SADC’s efforts to address the outbreak, it also underscores the growing recognition of the need for a holistic approach that properly caters to human security.