Morocco Rejects Aid from Algeria Amid Media Tensions Following Devastating Earthquake

Like some French media, some Algerian media such as the third national channel (ANT3) and AL24 covered the violent earthquake that occurred in Morocco for political purposes. Rabat did not accept the aid offered by these two countries. The kingdom only accepted aid from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Spain and the United Kingdom. According to the Algerian press, without the help of the eastern neighbor, Rabat would not be able to effectively cope with this ordeal. These Algerian media have frequently used words like "failure, incapacity and abandonment" in their reports on the disaster instead of positive terms like "preparation, solidarity and resilience" that reflect the reality.

Due to the current geopolitical tensions between Morocco and Algeria, - Algiers having unilaterally cut ties with Rabat -, the Algerian press has used the earthquake as a new front to confront Morocco, says Mohamed Mliless, an independent researcher in ecolinguistics and discourse analysis in an interview with Morocco World News. His explanations show that the Algerian regime is probably taking advantage of this opportunity to settle scores with Morocco on the political, economic, sports and cultural levels. "They think we are in a moment of weakness and they think they must take advantage of this opportunity to launch incessant attacks in order to further weaken the Shereefian Kingdom," he adds.

The images used by these media to illustrate their reports are just as condemnable. "Even the selection of images reflects a certain bias. More precisely, the chosen images only represent one aspect of the situation," explains Mliless. According to him, the sole objective pursued was to "reinforce the narrative of Morocco as an ’incapable’ state to adequately respond to the crisis by its own means". "This selective representation not only shapes the viewer’s perception, but also subtly reinforces the underlying political agenda of the Algerian media," he concludes.

At the UN General Assembly, Moroccan ambassador Omar Hilale also strongly criticized the political treatment of the earthquake by the Algerian press by responding to his Algerian counterpart Amar Bendjama who had attacked Morocco on the Sahara issue, before reiterating Algiers’ condolences to Rabat. "I would have wished that the difficult times Morocco is going through, the mourning of families, the dead, the thousands of injured and the destruction would have prompted them to remain silent out of respect for the moment, to show solidarity," said the Moroccan diplomat. And to add: "You cannot shed crocodile tears and at the same time attack a country that is still in a drama. [...] You express your solidarity and support but at the same time you inject your venom, you insult the dead, you insult the Moroccans."