Morocco: Government Vows to Improve Health Sector

Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine el-Othmani delivers his first speech presenting the government's program at the Moroccan Parliament in Rabat, Morocco (Reuters)
Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine el-Othmani delivers his first speech presenting the government's program at the Moroccan Parliament in Rabat, Morocco (Reuters)
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Morocco: Government Vows to Improve Health Sector

Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine el-Othmani delivers his first speech presenting the government's program at the Moroccan Parliament in Rabat, Morocco (Reuters)
Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine el-Othmani delivers his first speech presenting the government's program at the Moroccan Parliament in Rabat, Morocco (Reuters)

Health services in Morocco are still below expectations, however, the government vows to improve them, asserted Moroccan Prime Minister Saadeddine Othmani.

Othmani reported that the health sector needs a profound reform of its system with a strategic perspective on various issues, particularly governance.

Speaking during a parliamentary hearing session, the PM asked the deputies to be fair and refrain from negativity, which will not lead to any achievement in this sector.

The PM pointed out that his government has given the health sector special importance in the government program and raised the budget of the health sector to $1.6 billion in 2019, a 16 percent increase compared to 2016. This budget has improved in an unprecedented manner in the last 12 years, he said.

He explained that the biggest approach to reforming the health system was through basic health coverage, as it would make it possible to reduce expenditures on families. Health coverage reached 60 percent after it was 33 percent in the previous period.

Othmani pointed out that the health coverage will increase through a number of procedures, with the first batch of cards to be issued before the end of 2019.

The PM also announced that the coverage workshops will expand to include immigrants and refugees in the future.

To address the issues with the health sector, Othmani said the government prepared a national plan to develop the health sector in the year 2025. The plan was prepared according to “participatory approach”, in which it consulted with partners and those concerned with the national health issue.

This led to a roadmap founded on six basic principles: quality of services, equal access to these services, solidarity and interdependence, continuity and proximity, performance and efficiency, then responsibility and accountability.

For their part, a number of deputies discussed the issues of the health sector including the lack of doctors, saying there are 3.5 doctors in the public and private sectors for every 18,000 persons, while the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend the number should be 13 doctors per 18,000.

On Saturday, members of the semi-banned Islamist al-Adl Wa al-Ihssane group staged protests in front of a number of mosques in the eastern city of Oujda to denounce the authorities' ban on their seclusion at the mosques.

The group said that the public forces stormed four mosques in Oujda and “violently evicted those who were reciting the Book of Allah, and forced them to leave the mosque.”

The group’s spokesman Hasan Panaji reported that the authorities banned all citizens who visit these mosques for seclusion, and members of al-Adl Wa al-Ihssane are part of these citizens.

He warned that closing the mosques means the government is incapable of performing its duty in protecting people’s right to seclusion in the mosque.

The authorities believe that the opposing al-Adl Wa al-Ihssane group uses the mosques and houses to hold unauthorized public gatherings.



Iraq's Kurdish Oil Exports Restart is Not Imminent

An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
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Iraq's Kurdish Oil Exports Restart is Not Imminent

An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP
An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Kurdistan government media/AFP

A restart of Iraq's Kurdish oil exports is not imminent, sources close to the matter said on Friday, despite Iraq's federal government saying on Thursday that shipments would resume immediately.

Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government have been in negotiations since February to end a stand-off that has halted flows from the north of the country to Türkiye's port of Ceyhan. The KRG was producing about 435,000 barrels per day (bpd) before the pipeline closure in March 2023, Reuters reported.

On Thursday the federal government said that Iraqi Kurdistan would resume oil exports immediately through the pipeline to Türkiye's despite drone attacks that have shut down half of the region's output.

But on Friday a source at APIKUR, a group of oil companies working in Kurdistan, said that a restart depended on the receipt of written agreements. Another at KAR Group, which operates the pipeline, said that no preparations had been made for a restart.

Baghdad and the companies have not yet agreed how to restart the exports, a KRG government source said, while a source at Türkiye's Ceyhan said there was also no preparation at the terminal for a restart of flows.

On Thursday, a statement from KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said the government had approved a joint understanding with the federal government and it was awaiting financial details.

Similar agreements in the past failed to secure a resumption in exports and it remains unclear if this deal will succeed.

Oil companies working in Kurdistan have previously demanded that their production-sharing contracts should remain unchanged and their debts of nearly $1 billion be settled under any agreement.

Oilfields in Iraqi Kurdistan have been attacked by drones this week, with officials pointing to Iran-backed militias as the likely source of the attacks, although no group has claimed responsibility.

They are the first such attacks on oilfields in the region and coincide with the first attacks in seven months on shipping in the Red Sea by Iran-aligned Houthi militants in Yemen.

On Thursday a strike hit an oilfield operated by Norway's DNO in Tawke, the region's counter-terrorism service said.

It was the week's second strike on a site operated by DNO, which operates the Tawke and Peshkabour oilfields in the Zakho area that borders Türkiye.

No casualties have been reported, but oil output in the region has been cut by between 140,000 bpd and 150,000 bpd, two energy officials said.