First Independent Mena Newspaper
The UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday held an urgent debate on systemic racism and police brutality at the request of African countries amid the unrest in the United States and beyond over the death of African American George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. Participating in the debate, Permanent Representative of Morocco to the […]
The Chinese government has excluded the polisario from the extraordinary China-Africa summit 2020, dealing a hard blow to the polisario and Algerian rulers who are disoriented and disheartened to see that all schemes hatched against Morocco’s territorial integrity are falling apart. Fearing to irk Beijing, Algerian President, Abdelmajid Tebboune did not utter a word on […]
The royal initiative to provide humanitarian aid to African countries to help them in their efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic has attracted world attention and continues to prompt praise for King Mohammed VI and for Morocco. African leaders have commended the royal gesture, Western capitals have praised it, and international media have largely relayed […]
Morocco has one of the lowest covid-19 fatality rates (deaths in proportion to total infections) in the world (less than 2.6 pc), while 90 pc of the reported cases have already recovered, said the World Bank. In a feature published Wednesday after announcing a $48 Mln loan to support the Kingdom’s health system, the WB […]
The EuroMed Rights NGO has condemned the use by the Algerian authorities of the COVID-19 lockdown as a pretext to continue their crackdown against pro-democracy protesters and Hirak leaders. In its latest newsletter, the EuroMed Rights watchdog said as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Algeria was increasing early March, the civil society organizations […]
A growing number of Moroccan nationals, who were stranded overseas due to the covid-19 global lockdown, are returning to their homeland aboard flag-carrier Royal Air Maroc, mobilized by the authorities to bring back all Moroccan travelers who were struggling to get home. On Tuesday, a total of 313 Moroccan passengers, who were stuck in Turkey […]
The World Bank has approved a $48-million loan to Morocco to enable the country mitigate the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic which has so far infected 8,985 people in the North African Kingdom, killed 212, while 7,960 others recovered. The loan, which is part of an ongoing Program for Results project, approved in 2015, aims […]
Universal Musical Group, UMG, has launched its North Africa division in Morocco as part of the label strategic plan to foster talents in the region. The standalone office is set in the kingdom’s business city of Casablanca and will be headed by Serena Safieddine, who will work alongside UMG’s existing regional headquarters in Dubai, and […]
Head of Moroccan employers association (CGEM) Chakib Alj said the key interest rate and reserve requirement cut to 1.5% and 0% respectively are conducive for an economic recovery from the repercussions of the coronavirus. These cuts give banks more flexibility in financing enterprises during this crisis notably SMEs, he told local media. The government has […]
Morocco’s central bank cut the key interest rate from 2% to 1.5% to shore up the economy and reduced the reserve requirement for banks to 0% to release more liquidity. The Bank revised downwards its forecasts for 2020 to -5.2%, the lowest rate since 1996, compared with 2.5% in 2019, as the coronavirus impact and […]