King Mohammed VI Suspends Royal Guard Commander Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

The state of maximum alert, declared within the military garrison since the beginning of last week, has prompted the Sovereign to temporarily appoint General Chater as head of the Royal Guard, and to assign General El Mansouri to the general staff of the Royal Armed Forces.

The incident required the intervention of military doctors and mixed security bodies from the cities of Rabat, Salé and Temara, whose responsibility was to find the contacts of confirmed cases within the garrison, and to avoid the risk of multiplication of infection hotspots.

Eleven residential sectors have thus been placed in quarantine, and entire neighborhoods have been closed to traffic, including a very densely populated one in Kénitra. According to the daily Assabah, the task was very arduous for the law enforcement, due to the high concentration of slums and the recklessness of its inhabitants.