Our hearts go out to our Moroccan brothers and sisters whose country was hit by a magnitude 6.8 earthquake last Friday; this earthquake, the deadliest seen in the country in over a century, is said to have claimed over 3,000 lives. Similarly, our hearts and prayers accompany our Libyan brothers and sisters whose country was hit by unbelievable floods Tuesday which are said to have claimed between 5,000 – 10,000 lives, and displaced at least 30,000 people; these are also the worst floods Libya has seen in its history. How could such horrendous, never seen before, catastrophes hit countries in the Mediterranean at the same time? Both countries border Algeria on the west and east.

Talking about the earthquake in Morocco on Monday, most articles in the Western media, instead of focusing on the catastrophe, were focusing instead on the fact that Morocco has not allowed rescue teams from all countries to enter their territory, but just a few; in particular, they kept mentioning the fact that Morocco had not allowed French teams on the territory. Every article then was written following that angle, i.e. ‘Morocco is accepting rescue teams from some countries and not others,’ or ‘people are dying because the Moroccan government is not allowing all countries to join in the rescue‘… Some of these Western media and countries act like Africans’ pain should be examined with magnifying glasses, and we ought to accept everything. Isn’t it the right of a sovereign country to take its own decisions? Unbelievable, isn’t it? Who cares which rescue teams you allow on your territory? If some countries are so eager to help, why not send money, food, equipment, etc, instead of turning Moroccan pain into a diplomatic issue. By the way, shouldn’t the question instead be ‘Why is Morocco refusing aid from France and some other countries?’ Could it possibly have something to do with the fact that a couple of weeks ago, France asked to use Moroccan airspace to attack Niger, and maybe Morocco would like to make sure all efforts remain humanitarians? France had also asked to use Algerian airspace to attack Niger, but was denied.

Then disaster hit Libya. The death toll is said to be so high because when the storm hit, 2 dams 8 miles apart located outside the city also failed; it is said that the infrastructure was not well-maintained. Given that NATO and its cronies have messed up Libya to the point of no return by pillaging and looting it after killing Kadhafi, there is no real government in the country. Now giant French war planes are landing in Libya for rescue. War planes for humanitarian rescues? The floods hit the city of Derna on the Benghazi side, from where the attack against Kadhafi’s government were mounted in 2011. Since there is no real government or rather the Benghazi puppet government is weak, anything could fly over their airspace, thus making rescue efforts difficult to coordinate.

Our prayers go out to all our Moroccan and Libyan brothers and sisters. Africa stands with you. Neighboring countries should help when possible and remain on high alert.